Ode to Amrita Sher Gil

Ildikó Morovszki-Halász, a Hungarian artist who lives and works in India, has a famous predecessor - Amrita Sher Gil. And it doesn’t end there. Ever since she moved here with her family in 2015, her works have been inspired largely by India and by the iconic painter.

“Looking onto Amrita as my Master, first, I made aquarelle studies on her most famous Indian oil paintings, with the goal to create a déjá vu feeling, expressing the original atmosphere of her paintings but with a different technique. By studying her works, she not only inspired me but also gave me the chance to improve my artistic skills. I am, extremely thankful to Amrita for being my mentor and master and for opening my artistic vision on India.”

Ildiko’s father, who painted as a hobby, was his daughter’s first inspiration. “Drawing made me very happy so I decided to study art in high school, and university,” she says. “It became my form of self expression and my way of mapping the world.” When she began travelling with her family, she took up photography as a medium, chronicling the countries she visited.

“It was in Libya and Jordan that I began taking pictures of people,” she says. “It was in India, that I started to paint practically everything that inspired me; the colours, the vibrancy and the people. India inspired me to use far more colours and this was where my artistic expression came out much more and more.” Since 1993 she has had 14 solo exhibitions including the one at JW Marriott Hotel Bengaluru and she has also won three awards for her work.

India has been an important place for Ildikó. “Had I not come to India with my family in 2015, I might have never made a reach for a brush, but upon arrival to India, I immediately started to feel the same strong inspiration for painting that my fellow Hungarian-born woman artist, Amrita Sher Gil must have felt, living here.”

What: Ildikó Morovszki-Halász’s newpainting exhibition
When: March 16, 7 pm
Where: Art@ L1, JW Marriott Hotel Bengaluru