Staying loyal to the calendar, the season is packed with art shows. But “The Printed Picture: Four Centuries of Indian Printmaking” stands out on many accounts and the medium of printmaking that it focuses on makes it a compelling reason to be seen. How often do we get to see an exhibition which is dedicated to prints? Then the sheet size of it — 150 artists, twin set of publications featuring 400 plates and addressing diverse range of practices in different periods — makes it a sort of definitive project one wouldn’t like to miss out on.
Dr. Paula Sengupta, artist and scholar, who has been researching the subject and has curated the show, says that the need for such a show arose from the fact that there hasn’t been an exhibition spanning the history of printmaking in India, right from colonial times to its place in modernism. “The scale is like a museum but our museums are busy showing colonial art or something else and moreover, we don’t have a museum of modern art,” explains the curator.
Since the selection wasn’t done on the basis of medium but historicity, the curator informs the show has every conceivable process and technique like etching, engraving, woodcuts, linocuts, dry point, lithographs, oleographs, aquatints, etc.
It goes back in time, as far as 1700, to trace the beginning of printmaking in India with European masters and then making it to the bazaars for purposes of books and illustrations.
It then goes on to highlight the pioneering work done in the field in Santiniketan by artists like Abanindranath Tagore, Nandalal Bose, Ramkinkar Baij and Ramendranath Chakravarty followed by the likes of Haren Das, Somnath Hore and other stalwarts.
Moving forward, it takes note of what happened to it at various art centres and institutions which produced artists like Krishna Reddy, Jyoti Bhatt, Kanwal Krishna, Jagmohan Chopra and Anupam Sud. Various collectives, groups and artists initiatives are also in the ambit.
Various sections like artists who occasionally dabbled in the medium like M.F. Husain and K.G. Subramanyan has a section devoted to their work. Another one making a clear demarcation between the mechanical reproductions and the original works underlines the challenges faced by the galleries and artists and a section dedicated to the collection of ardent print collector Pradip Bothra. A significant part of the collection has come from Bothra’s treasure.
“The book and the exhibition cut off at the ’90s when there are many printmaking guilds and collectives around. The idea was to document the history of printmaking and since we have not gained enough perspective on the last 20 years, we didn’t include contemporary Indian printmaking into the fold.”
(The exhibition beginning today at Delhi Art Gallery, Hauz Khas, will be on view till November 3.)
