Tracing the India-Dutch art journey

Artists from the Netherlands to learn Kalamkari art in Pedana

Dutch artists working with Kalamkari artisans at Pedana in Krishna district.

PEDANA (KRISHNA): Three Dutch artists have arrived in Pedana, tracing the textile trade links between India and the Netherlands during the 17the and 18th Century, apart from documenting the evolution of the art over the centuries.

Twenty-six artists from the Netherlands will spend a month in the craft villages on the Coramandal coast and Gujarat, where the Dutch East India Company had set up trading posts and factories for the trade of cotton, indigo and silk.

Lily Lanfermeijer, Rudolf Lanfermeijer and Jenne Sipman, a film maker, on Tuesday began their research on hand-block printing technique in Kalamkari art at Pedana. “We have an incredible collection of several Kalamkari products made in Machilipatnam during the 17th Century, and all of them are being displayed at museums in the Netherlands. We have historical evidence to certify that those Kalamkari pievces were made in Machilipatnam on the Coromondal Coast,” Rudolf told

The Hindu .

The project has been named “De Textiel Factorij; Retracing textiles between India and the Netherlands”, which is being encouraged in collaboration with various museums in the Netherlands and art associations in India.

The second group of artists will begin the project by early January 2017 in Pedana, where they learn all stages of Kalamkari art under the aegis of Pitchuka Srinivas, P. Varun Kumar and K. Gangadhar brothers, who are award winning block makers.

“We will learn, document and produce the art works by the end our tour in the craft village. Our Kalamkari productions will be displayed at the museums in our country”, said Lily Lanfermeijer. Lily is an architecture student, who is keen on Kalamkari art.

The works by the group of 26 Dutch artists would be displayed at the museums including Fries museum, Zuiderzee museum, Tropen museum and Lloyd hostel in the Netherlands. “I am working on a documentary on the Kalamkari art. The documentary and our works will be digitised in order to enable any interested artists to connect to the respective artisans in the Indian craft villages”, documentary maker Jenne Sipman said.