Biography offers insight into life and love of Amrita Sher-Gil

Neha Saini

Amritsar, June 8

Amrita Sher-Gil, a celebrated artist, who loved pushing the boundaries of convention, has been one of the most profiled and fascinating figures for biographers across the world. But veteran journalist and author Ashwini Bhatnagar’s latest book Amrita and Victor can be considered a profile of Victor Egan, the Hungarian husband of Amrita, who was also her first cousin. Their relationship was a bane for many, including Amrita’s family and controversial to an extent but it still remains a subject of attention.

But Ashwini’s book goes beyond the controversies and looks at the relationship and Amrita Sher-gil with curiosity as the author himself shared in a conversation with Preeti Gill, founder, Majha House. “The provocation for the book happened 20 years ago, when in a discussion with Khushwant Singh at a party, I heard him use some undignified words to describe Amrita Sher-gil. As a political journalist, who had limited interest or knowledge of Amrita Sher-gil as an artist, I confronted him. Later, I decided to explore her life as an artist and as a woman, with curiosity and intrigue rather than preconceived notions,” shared Ashwini.

Ashwini, who also wrote a book on actor Meena Kumari, said that he saw some similarities between Amrita and Meena Kumari as both women were liberal in their discourse and ideas on life, they were extremely talented and were popular and sadly, both died young. “While etching out Kamal Amrohi’s character in my book, I did not paint him as villain. Similarly, I felt that Victor was the perfect foil to Amrita’s main character. I put myself in his shoes, to know how it is to have a woman, whose artistic impluses are extremely genious, who wants to break free from conventions. I found Victor to be quite a fascinating character himself.”

Ashwini, during his conversation, stressed on how he never really sees Amrita through the moral glass. “It’s not a a question of morality but ethics, and aesthetics. Amrita was a highly sensitive person and came from a place of deep trauma through conflict in family. She pushed the frontier so much that the need for validation automatically arose and I feel that as an artist, it was a natural progression.”