Y.G. Srimati (1926-2007)

Born in Mysore into a cultured Mandayam Brahmin Tamil family and educated in Madras (present-day Chennai, in South India), the Indian artist Y. G. Srimati, at a young age, received classical training in the four traditional South Indian arts-voice, music, dance, and painting.

She became a highly accomplished vocalist and performer of classical Indian music and kept a lifelong friendship with the preeminent Carnatic vocalist M.S. Subbulakshmi.

She also toured in India and the United States, and in the United Kingdom with the influential classical Indian dancer Ram Gopal.

Alongside her performance career, Srimati painted prodigiously and did so throughout her life.

Her mastery of watercolors allowed her to build on the aesthetics of the 1930s while reinventing a visual language that was overtly Indian.

In this she was strongly influenced by Nandalal Bose, the leading exponent of the "Indian style".

Her paintings were featured in a number of key exhibitions in India in the 1950s and 1960s, including solo exhibitions at the Government Museum in Madras in 1952 and at the All India Fine Arts Society in Delhi in 1955.

In 1950 she was profiled in the first major survey publication of painters in post-independence India, Present Day Painters of India (Bombay), alongside such established and rising artists as Jamini Roy, S.H. Raza, K.K. Hebbar, and Amrita Sher Gil. | © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The first retrospective exhibition of her work An Artist of Her Time: Y.G. Srimati and the Indian Style opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2016.

Y. G. Srimati accompanying Mahatma Gandhi at an independence rally

Nata a Mysore in una colta famiglia Mandayam Bramino Tamil ed educata a Madras (l'attuale Chennai, nel sud dell'India), la Y.G. Srimati (1926-2007), in giovane età, ha ricevuto una formazione classica nelle quattro arti tradizionali dell'India meridionale: voce, musica, danza e pittura.

Divenne una cantante ed interprete di grande talento di musica classica indiana e mantenne un'amicizia permanente con l'eminente cantante carnatico M.S. Subbulakshmi.

È stata anche in tournée in India, negli Stati Uniti e nel Regno Unito con l'influente ballerino classico indiano Ram Gopal.

Oltre alla sua carriera artistica, Srimati ha dipinto in modo prodigioso e lo ha fatto per tutta la vita.

La sua padronanza degli acquerelli le ha permesso di sviluppare l'estetica degli anni '30 reinventando un linguaggio visivo apertamente indiano. In questo fu fortemente influenzata da Nandalal Bose, massimo esponente dello "stile indiano".

I suoi dipinti furono esposti in numerose mostre importanti in India negli anni '50 e '60, comprese mostre personali al Government Museum di Madras nel 1952 ed alla All India Fine Arts Society di Delhi nel 1955.

Nel 1950 fu inserita nella prima un'importante pubblicazione di indagine sui pittori dell'India post-indipendenza, Present Day Painters of India (Bombay), insieme ad artisti affermati ed emergenti come Jamini Roy, S.H. Raza, K.K. Hebbar ed Amrita Sher Gil. | © The Metropolitan Museum of Art