Amrita Sher-Gil

Why is in news? The National Gallery of Modern Art in association with Liszt Institute, Hungarian Cultural Centre, celebrates the 110th birth anniversary of Amrita Sher-Gil.

The National Gallery of Modern Art, Ministry of Culture, Government of India in association with Liszt Institute, Hungarian Cultural Centre, New Delhi is celebrating the 110th birth anniversary of Amrita Sher-Gil on January 31.

The event included a curatorial walk throughthe gallery dedicated to Amrita Sher-Gil's paintings in Jaipur house.

On the occasion, the Liszt Institute - Hungarian Cultural Centre Delhi has launched the Amrita 110 Project.

The institute has presented the calendar of events that are scheduled this year connecting schools, art institutions, online events, film festivals, and release of Hungarian/Indian postal stamp.

A carnival will also be organised in collaboration with NGMA and designer Ritu Beri for the brand The Luxury League.

Amrita was an Indian-Hungarian painter and one of the avant-garde women artists. Her mother Marie Antoinette is a Hungarian and father Umrao Singh Sher-Gil is a Sikh from India

Though her art education was from Paris, she has discovered the artistic traditions of India. Amrita travelled widely in India during 1939 which has brought a robust impact on style of expression, figuration and composition in her artwork.

Her famous works are a group of three girls, Brahmacharis, Bride’s toilet, Lady Daljit Singh of Kapurthala, Musicians, woman on Charpoy, Camels and Village girls.

Sher-Gil traveled throughout her life to various countries including Turkey, France, and India, deriving heavily from precolonial Indian art styles as well as contemporary culture.

Sher-Gil is considered an important painter of 20th-century India, whose legacy stands on a level with that of the pioneers from the Bengal Renaissance.

She was also an avid reader and a pianist. Sher-Gil's paintings are among the most expensive by Indian women painters today, although few acknowledged her work when she was alive.

UNESCO announced 2013, the 100th anniversary of Sher-Gil's birth, to be the international year of Amrita Sher-Gil.