Prshant Lahoti of Kalakriti art gallery, Hyderabad, has been collecting vintage photographs, maps, and oleographs for the last two decades. Art enthusiasts in Hyderabad have been privy to some of these rare photographs and maps from Kalakriti Archives being showcased at curated exhibitions in recent years. Now, the gallery is displaying 90 oleographs and chromolithographs from its 500-odd archival collection.
Titled ‘Windows to the Gods’, the exhibition will showcase works of the masters — Raja ravi Varma, M V Dhurandhar, Bamapada Banerjee, R G Chonker, Vasudeo H Pandya, C G Ramanujam, Hiralal Bhagwandas of Nathdwara, P Mukundan Tampi — and other artists of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
“About 25 to 30 of these works are exclusive, with real zari embellishments done by hand. We have been wanting to display these large format lithographs and other select works for quite some time. We considered showcasing them during the annual Krishnakriti festival of arts and culture, but felt that these deserve a separate showcase,” says Rekha Lahoti of Kalakriti.
The large format embellished lithographic prints hark back to an era when women in well-heeled families embellished lithograph prints of gods and goddesses with embroidery and zardozi.
Curator Arkaprava Bose, a researcher with Krishnakriti Foundation and Kalakriti Archives, took more than a month to select the oleographs from the archival collection, to showcase them chronologically and thematically.
As most of these prints deal with subjects close to mythology, ranging from Raas Leela to Shiva Tandav, the exhibition is titled ‘Windows to the Gods’.
Arkaprava explains that traditionally, lithograph printing was done using stones. Chromolithographs involved printing with more number of stones to bring in a wider colour palette; in case of oleographs, oil was also used to enhance the quality and imitate an original oil painting.
The popularity of lithographs in India can be traced to Raja Ravi Varma, who opened a lithograph printing press in Mumbai in 1894, which was then shifted to Malavli near Pune. “He was aware that his original oil paintings could be commissioned or purchased only by royal families. He wanted his paintings to reach more people and opened the printing press. He did not want to mass produce the prints. Great care and thought went into lithograph prints. Gradually other artists were inspired by him. Dhurandhar began working at Ravi Varma’s press at an early age. He watched over the artistic reproduction of the prints while a German supervised the technical aspects. Ravi Varma’s paintings were, in later years, widely pirated. But paintings by Dhurandhar and Bamaprada Banerjee were not so widely known,” explains Arkaprava.
(‘Windows to the Gods’ will be on display at Kalakriti, Banjara Hills, till June 12; 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.)
