Amrita Sher-Gil A Self Portrait in Letters and Writings

About the Book
This self-portrait of the iconic Indian painter Amrita Sher-Gil(1913-1941) represents more than a life. For this book in two volumes, Amrita’s extant letters and writings are translated and reproduced from the originals, and in their entirety. The book draws on the primary text of these letters to open up a visual narrative around the artist’s oeuvre, complemented by a parallel text of notes that only annotate but also entangle the personal in the web of contemporaneity. The editorial intervention expands the setting to include the artist’s voice, photographers from the Sher-Gil family album, reviews from contemporary art critics, and accepts from autobiographies and testimonies that touched Amrita’s life. There are full colour reproductions of 147 paintings by the artist, representing the largest such collection in print, as well as of her early sketches and water colours. This archival effort makes for definitive volume on the life, art and wings of Amrita Sher-Gil. The book has a Foreword by Salman Rushdie; a Prologue and an Epilogue by Vivan Sundaram; a complete list of   Amrita Sher-Gil 171 known oil paintings with thumbnail sketches and detailed captions; and a select bibliography of writings by and on Amrita Sher-Gil.

About the Author

Viven Sundaram was born in Shimla in 1943. He studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts, MS University of Baroda, Vadodara, and the Slade School of Fine Art, London, in the 1960s before returning to India 1970 where he continued painting. Since 1990 he has turned to making artworks as sculpture, installation, photography and video. These works have been widely exhibited nationally and internationally. He has also organized artists’ workshop, curated exhibitions and done public art projects. A member of the Sher-Gil family, Vivan Sundaram has been engaged with the Sher-Gil Family, a painting made in  1983-84, and The Sher-Gil  Archive, an installation made in 1995, are precursors to his Re-take of ‘Amrita’, a series of digital photomontages made in 2001. Vivan Sundaram lives and works in New Delhi.