Parallel lives: Frida Kahlo and Amrita Sher-Gil

Amrita Sher-Gil was born in Budapest on January 30, 1913, to an Indian Sikh father, a photographer Umrao Singh Sher-Gil and a Hungarian mother.

Frida Kahlo was born to a German father and a Mexican mother.

Both as young girls, both women were exposed to their respective cultures which vastly enriched their work and self-expression.

Frida's father Guillermo Kahlo Kaufmann, was a photographer, just like Amrita's. Both their fathers often portrayed their respective family members through photography, a style that was easily picked by both daughters. Both artists as young girls freely learnt the art of self-portraiture and went on to develop it as a distinct feature of their respective oeuvre.

Frida Kahlo was born in July 6th, 1907, but she liked saying she was born in 1910, the year the Mexican Revolution started, as she wanted to be linked to that moment in Mexico's history.

Amrita’s birth also took place on the eve of First World War and she grew up in Budapest.

After studying painting in Europe, Amrita returned to India in early 1930s. She traveled to South India and started portraying the daily life scenes she found along her tour, following what she called her artistic mission to depict the life of Indian people through her canvas.

For women artists in the 1930-1940s it was not usual to portray themselves naked. Amrita's "Self-Portrait as a Tahitian" (1937) was a strong statement of how Amrita wanted to express what women, femininity and the ideas of empowerment meant for those times.

Amrita had a performative yet playful way to incorporate various Indian attires as part of her identity and persona. She approached saris and other traditional clothing to reveal her charismatic and mysterious side. Frida had a similar approach to clothing as she used used to wear textiles from Mexican indigenous origin, which contributed to her enigma and shaped her personality. For both, this was also a way to share how proud they were about their origins.

Their love lives were turbulent and full of anxious upheavals experimentation. Both of these artists experienced relationships with men and women, but eventually Amrita married her Hungarian first cousin, Dr. Victor Egan. Meanwhile Frida made an explosive couple with muralist Diego Rivera.

Amrita died in December of 1941 when she was just 28 years old and days before opening her first major solo exhibition. Her life was short, but very prolific, as she left a huge body of work, now considered National Art Treasure in India.