‘The Wheel of Life’ is an exhibition of Dakoji Devraj’s recent watercolour paintings, prints and drawings. The title couldn’t have been more apt. It’s the wheel of life that has brought him to Hyderabad after 20 years.
A contemporary of artists Suryaprakash and Laxma Goud, Devraj hails from Dharmojigudem and has been working in print making for the last four decades. He moved to the US along with his wife and artist Prathiba, where he specialised in print making and taught at different institutions, including City College of New York.
The homecoming has brought in a tinge of nervousness. The master lithographer says he’s been in touch with his contemporaries but is eager to see how they respond to his work. “My artist friends have seen my work online and in catalogues. But it’s a different experience to see it for real,” he says.
The display at Shrishtii art gallery offers a glimpse of the artist’s repertoire. The canvases are inhabited by birds, horses and wheels both in black and white and colour. Elements of nature recur in his work. One of the works, framed in glass, comes alive with a burst of colours. Watercolour? “Watercolour, followed by a digital printing process,” explains the artist. Even the smaller black and white frames show the artist’s nuanced approach, with respect to scale and dimensions.
Devraj says he was drawn to traditional print making and lithographs and was intrigued when computerisation crept into the process. “I was curious to learn photoshop and what went into digital print making. In the early 90s, I enrolled for classes in New York. The professor told me that youngsters were quick to learn,” he laughs. In the last 20 years, he says the artist in him hasn’t been as active as he would have liked to be. “I used to do two or three exhibitions prior to that,” he says.
The exposure to graphics and printmaking in the US, particularly his stint with artist Krishna Reddy at New York University’s graphics and printmaking department, made Devraj realise the lack of openings and marketing for artists in India. Emphasising on the importance of quality printmaking, he draws attention to Raja Ravi Varma. “He was a painter, not a printmaker but knew the importance of lithographs and established a press in Lonavala. His original paintings can only be afforded by the royals. The theme of his paintings was universal and prints made it possible for a cross section of people to own his works,” says Devraj.
Devraj says artists in the US also have the technical know how of painting and transferring them to prints. For a brief period, Devraj also collaborated with M.F. Husain. “For his stature, he was extremely humble and showed me the lithographs he had worked on. Husain would travel abroad to work on prints,” he says.
Through Krishna Reddy, Devraj got introduced to Robert Black Burn and gained experience at his printmaking studio. “This is a place where artists from different parts of the world would come and work. It was like a huge community workshop. Be it German, Japanese or Indian artists, Robert Black Burn knew their work.”
Drawings to water colour painting, Devraj tried his hand at various printmaking techniques that include etching, lithography and chine-colle. Enthused and confident with what he had learnt over the years, Devraj approached Lalith Kala Academy, New Delhi, and made a presentation of how edition printmaking can be taken forward in India. The response wasn’t favourable. “Edition printing is not common in India,” he rues.
Nevertheless, Devraj and Prathiba set up their own studio Atelier 2221 in Delhi and state that the next few years were a struggle, despite their best efforts to reach out to their fraternity to collaborate on projects with new techniques. “Many artists don’t have the money to get into edition printmaking and galleries are not keen on sponsoring them,” says Devraj. Prathiba shrugs, “Things didn’t work out. But we tried and at least we have a story to tell.”
