Practicing Success

Target Exam

CUET

Subject

Fine Arts

Chapter

The Bengal School and Cultural Nationalism

Question:

What is the significance of Amrita Sher-Gil in relation to the Anglicist and Orientalist viewpoints in Indian art?

Options:

She criticized the return to native art.

She represented the meeting of anglicist and orientalist viewpoints.

She rejected modern European art.

None of the above

Correct Answer:

She represented the meeting of anglicist and orientalist viewpoints.

Explanation:

Answer: She represented the meeting of anglicist and orientalist viewpoints.
Amrita Sher-Gil is cited as a perfect example of the meeting of both anglicist and orientalist viewpoints in art, using the style shown in the Bauhaus exhibition to depict Indian scenes.

The divide between anglicists and orientalists was not based on race. Take the case of the Bengali intellectual, Benoy Sarkar, who sided with the anglicists and considered modernism that was growing in Europe as authentic in an article, ‘The Futurism of Young Asia’. For him, the Oriental Bengal School of Art was regressive and anti-modern. On the other hand, it was E. B. Havell, an Englishman, who was in favour of return to native art to create a true modern Indian art. It is in this context that we have to view his collaboration with Abanindranath Tagore. Amrita Sher-Gil is a perfect example of the meeting of both these points of view. She used the kind of style that the Bauhaus exhibition showed to depict Indian scenes.