Documentaries on India’s legendary artists

A new series of screenings focuses on the life and works of legendary artists Amrita Sher-Gil and M.F. Husain, among other illustrious names.

On the other hand, ‘Amrita Sher-Gil’ is a documentary of B.D. Garga that traces the artist’s life journey, starting with scenes from around the Danube river, Budapest, where she was born. It makes mention of her early inspirations, her visit to south India in the 1930s and meteoric rise to achieve international fame before her tragic death, at a young age of 28, in Lahore.

Her early works reflected the academic style she was trained in. She simultaneously experimented to represent the non-western body in her paintings. An admirer of artist Paul Gauguin, the influence of realism was palpable in some of her works, particularly in the time period between the two world wars.

Exuding a joie de vivre, her practice was gradually characterized by a sense of melancholia, even while eyes firmly fixed on the timelessness of a pretty object. With ‘Three Girls’ (1935), she visibly switched to a flatter, more modern composition from the academic, realist style of painting.

Santi P. Choudhury’s half an hour long film, entitled simply ‘Husain’, shows the master immersed in a project to illustrate the mythological epic Ramayan and translate it into contemporary images. In between shots of him filming local enactments of the epic, the film also tries to shed light on the artist’s effort to infuse his own cultural readings and interpretations into his ravishing renditions.

The well-made film moves on to explore the probable origins of the modernist’s paintings on Mother Teresa, his unbounded fascination with horses, inspired in part by Italian artist Marino Marini’s stylized equestrian statues, and his predilection for the exciting pop culture. It focuses on a series, which he had created in memory of the legendary artist Pablo Picasso after his death in 1973.

The screenings take place at National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi. Entry fee is Rs. 10 for Indians (Rs. 1 for children and students).and Rs. 150 for non-Indians.