MESSAGE IN A PAINTING

“A woman fierce like storm, wild like sea, free like water and boundless like a river.”

A child of fusion, born to an Indian father and a Hungarian mother, a woman who grew up to be the pioneer of Indian Modern Art and is globally known as India’s Frida Kahlo has maybe unknowingly paved the way for the millennial feminists and artists.

Amrita Sher-Gil, the extraordinaire artist whose artistic journey started in Paris but her love for art bought her back to India. As quoted “I can only paint in India. Europe belongs to Picasso, Matisse, Braque…. India belongs only to me” – Amrita Sher-Gil.

Harleen Singh, artist and historian, gives his perception on the artist, “Amrita Shergill is no doubt India’s own Frida Kahlo. Her choice of bold subjects and colours in her paintings reflects her distinct personality. I see her as a pioneer of Modern Art in India, though India had the likes of Abdur Rahman Chugtais' and Abindranath Tagores’ already practicing the Indian version of Modern Art. Being a woman practicing 'unconventional' art in 1930's and 1940's Punjab, it was no doubt that she had her share of troubles. There is a sense of melancholy in her artworks. The subjects deeply reflect Amrita’s mind and her take on life.”

Amrita Sher-Gil was a free spirit, an emancipated woman in the conservative eras of the 40s. She was rebellious, fierce and a bold personality and that is reflected in her self-portraits.

During the time when women were oppressed, objectified and patriarchy ran in Indian veins, Amrita’s self-portraits and paintings continued to amuse the society, hitting them like a storm.

The bold nudity, her bohemian character and free spirited personality was a revolution during the traditional 40s’. Even though the limelight of her life as an artist are mostly her sexual escapades, her bisexuality or her boudoir artworks – the significant aspect of Amrita’s life as an artist are overshadowed and her strong message ignored.

Chitwan Aneja, 22, Art and Design student added, “Amrita Shergill’s self-portraits show a variety of emotions and feelings. Nudity for me is embracing yourself in all honesty. As when we are naked, we are truest to our own self, less deceptive. Moreover, nudity also portrays how heavy the clothing of the society and culture feels. As if she wanted to get rid of those burdens from her body. As a woman and an artist, she chose to stand out from the ongoing customs."

Amrita Shergil even with a “Parisian” education, her bohemian art techniques, she did not overlook the suffering of lower castes. She has very subtly but strongly shown casteism in India. She was an avid traveller and had seen different cultures all over the world.

During her time in India, she travelled from north to south India and the different flavours of her various travels are shown with the vibrant, deep colours she has used in her paintings with a little fusion of her Parisian life.

Amrita Shergil was a woman ahead of her time. Her perspective about women can be seen in her paintings. The bold, strong and confident women and the supressed women. The lost look in their eyes as they are hiding their emotions deep. The smiling, confident women when able to express herself freely. You can see the hidden feelings of women living in that time through her paintings and self-portraits.

Chitwan, Art and Design student comments, “I totally believe that Amrita Shergill was a woman ahead of her time. The time when people (artists from Begal school) were solely painting about the country’s crisis and political scenario, she was the only artist expressing her own environment and life crisis. She even revealed her same sex attraction through her paintings which as a subject for that era was considered a taboo to be spoken about.”

It has been decades since the untimely death of Amrita Shergil, yet people are inquisitive and curious when it comes to her. Irony is that people who feel that her paintings are sexual and bold are the ones supressing her art to a mere controversy. When her art is a revolution in feminism. Her paintings exhibit an expression of a lonely woman trying to break-free from the boundaries.

Society has always overshadowed the female expression, by giving it a form of a controversial artwork. Be it the story ‘Lihaaf’ by Ismat Chugtai or the novels of Shobha De, even “Paro” by Namita Gokhale - all works exhibiting female self-expression, in the form of sexuality or a step against stubborn patriarchy are always reduced to the level of “controversial art”. We, as a society should know that even though the artworks are given limelight by critics, but the powerful messages of these women are overshadowed. Why do we think that exhibiting female sexuality and desires are a controversy, a revolt? Can’t women express themselves without creating a chaos, can’t they have sexual feelings or feel comfortable in their skin without the judgement?

It is absolutely hilarious that women expressing feelings openly are taken as a revolt against society when it’s a calling for freedom just like every living being trapped in a cage.

Chitwan, talking more on the subject, adds, “The messages through her paintings as labelling something as “controversial” distracts the reader/ viewer. She stepped to break the stereotypical customs be it through subject of her paintings or her personal relationships with people. And calling her artworks ‘controversial’, the society isn’t overpassing the truth rather its being stereotypical again to define an art in that manner.”

For me, the expressions of her self-portraits speak of emotions with no bounds. Her comfort in her own skin and the freedom in nudity, she was trying to show the world how women can feel if left free, even if left alone.

Amrita Shergil, an artist, a feminist is a woman to always be remembered and celebrated.

P.S. You can find her works at National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi.