"Amrita Sher-Gil - The Magyar Connection" an exhibition of paintings, drawings, photographs & letters at Hungarian Centre, 1-A, Janpath > 1st February-1st March 2013

Time : 
1st February : 6:00 pm - Inauguration
2nd February to 1st March : 10:00 am - 6:00 pm - Exhibition on View

Entry : Free

Place : Hungarian Information and Cultural Centre (HICC), 1-A, Janpath, New Delhi- 110 001

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Event Description : 'Amrita Sher-Gil - The Magyar Connection'.

Celebrating the 100th birth anniversary of the great Indian painter.
"It always surprises me to hear that those who can recognise the good in Western art are unable to do so as regards Eastern art. To me it seems incredible. But perhaps this is due to my double atavism..." thus spoke Amrita Sher-Gil (1913–1941), the Indo-Hungarian woman artist and legendary icon of modern Indian art. To mark her centenary the exhibition highlights one side of Amrita's ancestry - the Magyar connection; documenting with rich material taken from the Sher-Gil family archive, the autobiographical, cultural, historic al and social Hungarian context that formed and influenced her personality and work.
The exhibition is curated by her niece, the documentary film maker Navina Sundaram. 

Childhood watercolors and drawings, photographs mostly taken by her father Umrao Singh Sher-Gil, and extracts from her letters document the three phases of her short life that she spent in the country of her birth: early childhood during and after the First World War; the summer holidays during her student years in Paris and finally the year just before the outbreak of the Second World War when she marries her Hungarian cousin.

CHRONOLOGY
1913-1921 in Hungary
February 1912 Umrao Singh Sher-Gil marries Marie Antoinette Gottesmann Erdöbaktay in Lahore.
December 1912 Umrao Singh and Marie Antoinette leave for Budapest.
30 January 1913 Amrita is born in Budapest. She is christened Dalma-Amrita.
28 March 1914 Amrita’s sister Indira is born.
September 1916 The Sher-Gils move to Marie Antoinette's family home in the village of Dunaharaszti, on the outskirts of Budapest.
1919 Young Amrita starts making drawings in colour pencils based on Hungarian fairy tales and folk stories.
January 1921 The Sher-Gils return to India from Hungary via Paris. They settle down in Simla.

1921-1929 in India
1926 Maternal uncle, painter and Indologist, Ervin Baktay comes to Simla; guides Amrita to draw from models.
Suggests she should go to Europe to train in art.

1929-1934 in Europe
February 1929 The Sher-Gils leave for Paris, via Italy.
Amrita is admitted to the Grande Chaumiere in Paris under Professor Pierre Vaillant.
Joins the studio of Lucien Simon at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts.
June 1930 The Sher-Gils go to Hungary. Subsequently, till 1934, Amrita spends every summer there.
Known paintings done during this period: Klara Szepessy, Gypsy Girl from Zebengény, Boat, Church in Zebegény,
Hungarian Gypsy Girl, Grandmother, Victor Egan, Viola Egan, Reclining Nude
February 1934 Meets Hungarian writers Desző Szabó and Frigyes Karinthy in Budapest.
December 1934 Returns to India.

1934-1938 in India

1938-1939 in Hungary
June 1938 Sets sail for Hungary from Bombay.
July 1938 Marries Dr Victor Egan, her first cousin, in Budapest.
Known paintings done during this period: Hungarian Peasant, Trees, Two Girls, In the Garden, The Merry Cemetery, Winter Scene, Potato Peeler, Hungarian Church, Hungarian Village Market, Hungarian Church Steeple, Female Torso
June 1939 Returns to India with Victor via Ceylon.

1939-1941 in India
December 1939 Goes to the Majithia family estate at Saraya, Gorakhpur to settle there.
Victor is employed as a doctor at the Saraya Sugar Factory.
September 1941 Goes to Lahore to settle there.
5–6 December 1941 Passes away at midnight, after a brief illness.

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