Hungarian Information and Cultural Centre in collaboration with Oxford University Press held a book launch Amrita Sher-Gil: Art and Life, A Reader edited by Yashodhara Dalmia.

Hungarian Information and Cultural Centre in collaboration with Oxford University Press held a book launch Amrita Sher-Gil: Art and Life, A Reader edited by Yashodhara Dalmia, at Hungarian Centre’s Auditorium.

The book was released by H. E. Mr. Szilveszter Bus, Ambassador-Designate of Hungary. The launch was followed by an illustrated lecture,Amrita Sher-Gil, Paris, and the Bloomsbury Group, by an art historian Giles Tillotson and a special screening of the film, Amrita Sher-Gil: The Bridge Builder, directed by EbrahimAlkazi.

About the book – Unacknowledged during her life and considered an icon post her death, between these polarities lies the journey and the struggle for expression of one of the most enterprising and innovative artists of our times, Amrita Sher-Gil (1913-1941).

Did the Ajanta Caves and Gauguin influence Amrita’s works? How was she as a person and as an artist? Was her work in India indeed of unequal quality as often considered to be? In this collection, Karl Khandalavala, G.H.R. Tillotson, K.G. Subramanyan, and N. Iqbal Singh, among others, ponder these and other aspects of Amrita’s short but impactful life dedicated to art. With Charles Fábri’s fictional account of the travails of a young artist in Lahore in the 1940s carrying an unmistakable resemblance with the influential and avant-garde artist, the volume also includes a piece by Amrita on her evolution as an artist.

Accompanied by rare black and white and colour visuals, this book brings together modern and contemporary critiques as well as early writings by past masters that have largely remained inaccessible until now.

About the editor – Yashodhara Dalmia is a well-known art historian and independent curator based in New Delhi. She has written extensively on art and culture and her publications include, among others, The Painted World of the Warlis(1988), The Making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives (OUP 2001), and Memory, Metaphor, Mutations: Contemporary Art of India and Pakistan (co-authored with SalimaHashmi, OUP 2007).

 Contributors

* Yashodhara Dalmia * Nissim Ezekiel * Charles Fabri * KatalinKeserü * Karl Khandalavala

* Esther (née Esmet) Rahim * Amrita Sher-Gil * N. Iqbal Singh * K.G. Subramanyan * G.H.R. Tillotson

* Oxford University Press

 About Hungarian Information and Cultural Centre (HICC)

The Hungarian Information and Cultural Centre is one of the oldest Cultural Centres in Asia and was established in Delhi in 1978. The most important target of our institute is to strengthen the cultural, scientific and educational relations between the two countries as well as to increase the existing ones. During the 36 years of its existence the Hungarian Centre has become a prestigious institute and has been regarded as one of the best and most frequented cultural institutes in Delhi. No doubt that it has become a favourite meeting point for the Indian intellectual circles since it offers a variety of interesting cultural programmes almost every day, be it a concert, a film-show, a scientific lectures, Hungarian language classes or an art exhibition. It is not only Indian visitors who, over the years, formed a very positive image of the Hungarian Centre, but the cultural diplomats of the former and the newly joined member countries of the European Union also keep it in a very high esteem. For more information about Hungarian Information and Cultural Centre visit www.delhi.balassiintezet.hu

About Oxford University Press (OUP)

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. OUP is the world’s largest university press with the widest global presence. It currently publishes thousands of new publications a year, has offices in around fifty countries, and employs nearly 6,000 people worldwide. OUP has become familiar to millions of people through a diverse publishing programme that includes scholarly works in all academic disciplines, school and college textbooks, children’s books, materials for teaching English, business books, dictionaries, reference books and academic journals.For more information about Oxford University Press visit www.oup.com.