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Amrita Sher-Gil. An Indian Artist Familiy in the 20th Century

Vivan Sundaram (geb. 1943)

'Re-take of Amrita'

Vivan Sundaram, Retake of Amrita, 2001/2002, Portrait © Vivan Sundaram
Vivan Sundaram, Retake of Amrita, 2001/2002, Portrait © Vivan Sundaram

An artist in his own right, Amrita Sher-Gil's nephew Vivan Sundaram has been involved with the Sher-Gil archive for more than thirty years. In 2001-2 he created a series of digital photomontages entitled Re-take of Amrita. Using photographs taken by Amrita's father Umrao Singh Sher-Gil as a starting point, Sundaram produced montages that literally re-take or re-present the family album, foregrounding in particular the images of Amrita.

In the original photographs, Amrita's father portrays himself as a deeply serious and self-reflexive man at odds with the lavish décor of his home and the vivacious lifestyle of his Hungarian wife, Marie Antoinette. In his montages, Vivan Sundaram presents these contrasting parental figures alongside pictures of Amrita and her sister, combining images taken at different times and locations.

Amrita appears as a young woman in command of her own multiple identities, reflected in her changing outfits, stances or expressions. There are allusions to her remarkable love life: her numerous lovers included the artist Boris Taslitzky, and perhaps even the future prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru. As much as
the pictures allow us to peer into a fascinating private world and appear to offer insights into the domestic life and psyche of the artist, they also raise questions and at times we are unable to distinguish fact from fiction.

The film playing here Amrita Sher-Gil, a Family Album, is a personal account of the life and work of the painter made by Navina Sundaram, Amrita's niece and Vivan's sister. Using old photographs, letters, diary entries and newspaper cuttings as well as stories that her mother told her, Navina Sundaram investigates the art and life of Amrita Sher-Gil from her perspective as both a journalist and a family member.

Source: Tate Modern

 

Vivan Sundaram (born 1943) is the grandchild of Umrao Singh and nephew of Amrita Sher-Gil. In 1984 he created a large-format painting  "The Sher-Gil Archive", and in 2001/2002 the cycle of digitally processed photographs  "Re-take of Amrita".  

Re-take means to re-shoot a scene. Vivan Sundaram chooses particular moments and guides attention, via specific arrangements, to the hidden expressions in the found images of the family. Under his direction the protagonists give a second performance and go a step farther than was initially intended. The effect that springs from the confrontation of female and male narcissism, the father's intense visual interest in his daughter, as well as the duplication of a figure, is increased here to a perturbing degree. Without expanding on the idea, Amrita herself once spoke of the "hothouse atmosphere" that dominated her family life. In "Re-take of Amrita" it becomes obvious what she may have meant by this.

Vivan Sundaram, Bourgeois Family: Mirror Frieze, 2001, digital photomontage, Courtesy the artist
Vivan Sundaram, Bourgeois Family: Mirror Frieze, 2001, digital photomontage, Courtesy the artist

Oscillating between Cultures ...

In addition, Vivan Sundaram charges the spiritual atmosphere, which is characterized by oscillating between cultures, with a kind of pathos. The artificiality of his arrangements remains, however, constantly present for the viewer. In this way, his position enters the works as a contemporary artist, who views this pathos at a distance since the ideas of home and abroad and of residing and traveling have been qualified as opposites for him.

The exhibition catalogue is published by Schirmer / Mosel.

Penguin India published a biography of Amrita Sher-Gil in 2006 and Vivan Sundaram will edit "The Letters and Writings by Amrita" for Tulika Press in New Delhi.

In cooperation with the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, Ministry of Culture, Government of India, New Delhi, and the Goethe-Institute, New Delhi.

 

Source: Haus der Kunst, Munich