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Amrita Shergil is perhaps the best-known woman painter of India. Despite her death at a very young age, she made a name for herself on the international art scene and is considered a pioneer of modern Indian painting. The basic subject materials of her paintings of her paintings were mostly ordinary women whom she embued with extraordinary grace and beauty even when painting them in the nude. Post-independence India has produced many women painters who have established themselves nationally and internationally, and are a well-known name in the field of fine arts today. Akre Surjit, who has been painting for the last twenty years, is one such painter. She has exhibited her works in most of the prestigious art galleries in India and has participated in several major exhibitions abroad. Her prolific work has been well received and appreciated by the art critics and art lovers as well. Apart from painting, she is also involved in promoting art and culture through various fora, such as the Indo-Russian Roerich Art Club, of which she is the Vice-Chairwoman. She is also the President and Founder Member of Indo-Russian Academy of Fine Arts and Sports. She was born as Surjit Kaur in the small town of Tarn Taran in the Indian state of Punjab, she spent most of her life in Delhi where her parents migrated when she was quite young. Her keen interest in drawing and painting was not particularly liked or encouraged by her traditional parents, who wanted her to get married and settle down after finishing her studies. However, fate had willed otherwise; she was destined to be a famous painter. Click
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The opportunity to fulfil her dream of becoming a painter was a godsend. As soon as she obtained a Diploma in Commercial Art, her father was posted to Moscow and the family moved to the Russian capital. There she studied oil painting under Prof. V.N. Oreshnikov from 1977 to 1985 at the prestigious Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. It is but natural that her work during this period shows a clear influence of Russian culture, environment and surroundings.
"Time Image" Memorial cash award. The Department of Culture, Ministry of Human Resource and Development, awarded her a senior fellowship as an outstanding artist from 1996 to 1998. Her paintings are in prestigious collections such as at the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi; National Museum, Chandigarh; and in the galleries of Air India, ONGC and Lalit Kala Akademi, among others. During her long career, Akre Surjit has painted nature profusely, done excellent portraiture and nude studies. Over the years, she has evolved her distinct style, full of rich texture, simple figures shorn of unnecessary detail. Her strong, uncluttered compositions effortlessly portraying the emotions, aspirations and frustrations of ordinary people around her, coping with their daily life and its problems. Being a woman and having herself faced several of those problems faced by ordinary Indian women in their daily lives, she is determined to raise and depict them through her medium of expression which she creates so effectively and sensitively in her paintings. Her use of warm subdued colours enhances the sombre mood and atmosphere, leaving a lasting impression of the image on the onlooker. Her distinct Indian content, style and use of hues is reminiscent of the most famous Indian name in this field - Amrita Shergil. The author is a noted freelance lensman and writer.
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