India Belongs Only To Me, Amrita Had Said

Once upon a time, there lived a girl called Amrita. She was pretty, vivacious, bold, and loved to paint. Sadly, she died young, before she could turn 29.Amrita didn’t live to see what a phenomenon she would become as Amrita Sher­Gil (1913­1941), one of the most influential painters to create a truly Indian idiom for the country’s modern art. What the celebrated Progressive Artists of a newly independent India would do from 1947 onwards, Amrita had already attempted, and partly succeeded, a generation before – much before M.F. Husain, S.H. Raza and F.N. Souza among others would do as a group, to break completely free of the colonial influences on Indian art and lay the foundations of what we today know as modern Indian art, the segment that commands the highest aspirational value.What we know of Amrita through the writings of the period, her father’s family photographs, through her nephew, the artist Vivan Sundaram, and through her biographies like the one by Yashodhara Dalmia, is that she was at least a 100 years ahead of her time.The life that Amrita lived adds to her allure even 74 years after her death. Says Dalmia, “Even today, many women in India cannot make their own choices but Amrita, despite her background, was not a typical upper class society girl, someone who would make a good catch in marriage. She lived a life very different from what her parents wanted — Bohemian, visiting cafes in Paris, meeting artists... well ahead of her times.”She painted fearlessly and unabashedly – whether it was the common people across the country or self portraits, looking confidently in the viewer’s eye like in the canvas above. In doing so, she set a template for all the generations of Indian artists to follow, or at least refer to, when attempting breakthrough art.To create art to leave an impact like that, Amrita had to break “moulds and barriers while living in a country with conservative social mores,” says Yamini Mehta, International Director, Indian and Southeast Asia Art/ Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art, Sotheby’s. “She reflected the zeitgeist of her unconventional upbringing and transcended social norms with her sensual self­portraits and those of her friends, and also of India’s countryside,” adds Mehta.Amrita was declared a national treasure artist in 1976, which means that her work in India cannot leave the country. Which is why an Amrita Sher­Gil canvas hitting the market is a true big bang event as there are not many in circulation, with the bulk being in the collection of the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi.Expectedly, the Sotheby’s sales of South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art that will take place in New York on March 18 has created a tremendous buzz in the market as this self­portrait is its headlining act.Priyanka Mathew, Vice President, Head of Sales, Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art at Sotheby’s, says, “This is a moment that comes rarely in one’s career; to handle a painting that is unique and a work by an artist whose output is so sparse. Sher­Gil’s work has been offered only three times in the history of auctioning modern Indian art in the international market over the last two decades. This is the first self­portrait of her's to come to the market and one of the best examples of her early work. She is the only example of a woman Indian painter who worked in the early 1900s and who lived outside of societal norms to create a body of art that spans different geographies both stylistically and topically. She is India’s answer to Latin America’s Frieda Kahlo. We are thrilled and deeply honored to have this very special chance at offering her work to the world.”Both Amrita and Frieda Kahlo were half­Hungarian (the latter only six years older than the former), both went against the grain of the society, and both invoke “mythical status in their respective art histories.”The self­portrait underlines all that we have constructed about Amrita through various sources. Done when she was barely 19, she arrests the onlooker with her eyes and lips. Says Mehta, “It is a work that is a supremely accomplished and demonstrates Amrita’s genius as an artist. This enigmatic self­portrait is beguiling, showing her as a demure girl with a shy smile and as a coquette. With those sensuous red lips, she is on the cusp of full womanhood, gazing directly at the viewer (and herself). One wonders what she thought of herself as she looked in the mirror to paint this work. This duality makes it a key work in her entire oeuvre, which is an exploration of the duality in her life, her identity as an Indian and as a European.”Art historian and curator Dalmia says that the self-portrait comes from an important period of the artist’s life. “She made this self­portrait when she was living in Paris and acquiring all the skills at Beaux Arts. This one is a very, very close up of her face, revealing her inner and outer self candidly. Later, she would paint herself with a bare shoulder, in a sort of abandon, which became famous. These self­portraits are very much in line with her movement away from conventional portraits. She would gradually then move towards making Indian portraits. In her later Tahitian self­portrait, she would bare herself to the waist.”Expected to fetch $1.2m ­ $1.8m (approx. Rs 7.4 crore –Rs 11.2 crore, making it the second most valuable work in the auction, after an untitled V.S. Gaitonde), it wouldn’t be a surprise if it goes way beyond the pre auction estimates. Says Mathew, “We are expecting competition for this picture from all over the world. There are only 175 documented works by Sher­Gil, of which 95 are in the NGMA collection. Most others are in private collections in India. Her existing body of work within India cannot leave the country, which makes this opportunity to acquire her work internationally so rare. There are only a handful of works that are in free circulation, which will induce a lot of bidding internationally.” Dalmia says that she would expect bidding not just from Indian Americans but from Indians all over the globe.The work comes to the auction from a European collection. Says Mehta, “We had been in discussion with an agent for the European owner since October last year. I had been so focussed on the consignment that it was only after the deal was inked that I allowed myself to feel excited. The team whooped in joy. I still look at this painting and cannot believe it is here and we have it. It is a dream to have the opportunity to handle any work by Amrita Sher­Gil, especially this one. She is the Holy Grail of our field.”The biggest tragedy is the short life Amrita lived. Mehta says that had she lived longer, her impact would not just have been on India but on the world. Says Mehta, “She never needed the strength of a group to make an impact. She is an iconic and unorthodox figure in Indian history. I would like to think that Frieda Kahlo would be referred to as ‘Mexico’s Amrita Sher­Gil’ had Amrita’s promising career spanned more than a decade. She once famously declared: ‘Europe belongs to Picasso, Matisse and Braque and many others. India belongs only to me’.”Need we say more?Follow @ARTINFOIndia