Vivan Sundaram is the grandson of Umrao Singh Sher-Gil and nephew of Amrita Sher-Gil. His montages reinterpret photographs taken by his grandfather by showing the relationship between Amrita Sher-Gil and the people around her and is an exploration of Amrita’s life in India.
He uses digital technology to layer both an image of Amrita and her own painting in black and white. Amrita Sher-Gil works saw a balance between a western academic style and Indian aesthetics and subject matter. The photomontage by Sundaram shows a young Amrita on a self-portrait made by her.
Vivan Sundaram (1943)
Re-take of ‘Amrita’: Digital Photomontages
2001, Photomontage, 22 x 12 in.
Signed and dated lower right
Estimate: 4,00,000 - 5,00,000 INR
Published: Family, Photography, and Icon: Vivan Sundaram’s Re-take of ‘Amrita’, IIAS Newsletter, #29, November 2002.
Exhibited: Vivan Sundaram: Re-take of Amrita, Crow Museum of Asian Art, 2014.
Provenance: Christie’s Mumbai 2013
Lot no. 18 coming up in Prinseps Spring Auction 224 - 25 April 2019
