Budapest hosts conference on Indian-Hungarian links in art

Forrás: mti | 2013. november 04. hétfő 17:49 |

A conference dedicated to Indian painter of Hungarian origin Amrita Sher-Gil (1913-1941) and cultural links between the two countries started in Budapest on Monday.

Gyorgy Fekete, head of the conference's organiser Hungarian Art Academy (MMA), said at the opening event that "the spiritual journey between the two countries" includes such notable persons as Hungarian Orientalist Sandor Korosi Csoma, Bengali polymath Rabindranath Tagore, former Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi, Hungarian writer and Islamologist Gyula Germanus and Hungarian-British archaeologist Aurel Stein. Ministry of Human Resources official Imre Lazar told the conference that cultural cooperation between the two countries goes back to the 16th-17th centuries but links became especially strong in the early 20th century thanks to many Hungarian scientists and researchers who visited India, including Stein, Ervin Baktay and Germanus. The conference features 23 lectures over two days exploring bilateral relations in science, painting, music, dance, literature, architecture and ethnography. The second day will be focused on Sher-Gil, whose birth anniversary is commemorated this year. The chief patron of the event is Minister of Human Resources Zoltan Balog.