An exhibition organised by Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi

Published by Lalit Kala Akademi Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi CONTENTS

Historical Section Graphic Art in India : l850 to 1950 (A Brief Background and History) Amit Mukhopadhyoy and Nirmolendu Dos Selected Reprod uction _List of works Contemporary Section

Contemporary Graphics in India I - Joyo Apposwomy 11 - Ratan Porimoo Ill - S.A. Krishnon Printmaking, A Flashback \ Keshov Molik \ I. Printmaking in Bengal : A Quick Survey Pronobronion Ray Printmaking in India : Focus on the Western Region AS. Roman Printmaking in Southern Region Jose( Jomes Selected Reproduction Invited works Selected works List of works GRAPHIC ART IN INDIA : 1850 TO 1950 (A Brief Background and History)

Amit Mukhopadhyay and Nirmalendu Das exploring the medium, graphic art became one of the most im portant media for artistic expression and began to flourish through commerci al printing.

Before 1964, all the printed pictures for both ill ustrative (commercial) and non­ The phrase 'Graphic Art' has been derived from the Greek 'Graphikos' through the illustrative (fine art) purposes, were together titled graphic art'. As the purpose Latin 'Graphicus' to the English 'Graphic' which stands for writing, drawing and attitude of each differs from that of the other, it became a vital necessity to (pictorial or symbolic rather than verbal); plus 'Art' (middle Eng lish and old Eng lish coin a new term to di stinguish between them. To solve this problem , the Print accusative) from the Latin 'Ars' (nomi native), 'Artem ' (accusative), meaning skill Council of America, in 1964, restricted the definition of an original print and applied to a production of beauty or to a work of creative imagination. In general , wadually the term 'printmaking' was generally accepted . t he term 'graphic art' embraces a large number of activities from logogram to book printing, from symbol to artistic prints, from commercial to fine arts. Diagrammatical 1. The artist will create the master irr.~ge in or upon plate, wood, stone or other drawings, signs and symbols either painted or printed are also included under material for the pu rpose of creating the prints. 'Graphic-design', but the term is largely restricted to printing activities, with the use 2. The print will be made from t he said material by the artist or pursuant to his of mechanical, partly mechanical, or manual process for the reproduction of images direction (Recently this w as further restricted - that t he artist will process the or words. Printing is the technique of producing impressions by means of block and that the print w ill also be taken by the artist). transferring inked images onto paper or other matenal by either mechanical or 3. The final print is approved by the artist and duly signed. The artist must mention manual pressure. the edition number and the nature of the edition. Unsigned prints will be considered less val uable than signed impressions. In his book, Book Collecting (London, 1945), P.H. Muir explains the achievement 4. If the prints are made for an edition of more than ten for sale, the artist must and impact of printing on human society : "There are few inventions that have produce one cancelled print by a cross mark on or upon the block to guard more radically affected the outlook and the daily lives of every one of us, and against further editions. almost every invention since owes a great deal to printing." Of all the visual art media being practised all over the world today, graphic art is one of the most The council also made it clear that these restrictions are not necessarily applicable powerful and universal. lt has proved that as a medium it is the most effective to prints made before 1930. because, through the multiplication process, print can reach the maximum number of people com prising various strata of society. The 'Renaissance ' in Europe would Mechanical printing was introduced in India during the middle of the sixteenth not have been successful without the mvention of printing; it was during those century, about a hundred years aher the first printed book appeared elsewhere in times that mechanical printing became a reality and enlarged the scope of the world. We do not hove any evidence of manual or mechanical printing on communication by producing quantities of printed matter. paper that dates prior to 1556 when the Portuguese Jesuit missionaries settled in Goa. The Portuguese Jesuit missionaries of Goa were the first to think of printed books as an effective vehicle for the propagation of Christian ideology. They During the last part of the fiheenth century, graphic art emerged in a new direction imported printing presses and movable types from Lisbon and it w as on September when A lbrect Durer, the most illustrious personality in fiheenth century European 6, 1556, that two wooden presses arrived in Goa by ship. The presses were set up art history, explored the print medium with a different aim and attitude. From this and t he missionaries lost no time in printing their first book that very year : 4 time onwards, when many more artists in Europe took a special interest in Conclusoes e Outras Coisas. 5 Between the middle of the sixteenth century and the end of the eighteenth century, The printmaking trade which was totally dominated by the Europeans until the printing activities had increased in different parts of India, under the aegis of 1820s, slowly changed hands and became a major trade under Indian enterprise. Bhimjee Parekh in Bombay and in Tranqueber (near Madras) under the Danish Indian publishers not only felt the need for printed books in order to reach a wider missionaries. However, dunng this period printing did not flourish as compared to section of the people but they also felt that illustration could help to create more the hectic printing activity initiated by the British in the early nineteenth century. interest in reading. They were also on the look-outfor Indian artists to undertake The reason for this is that until the advent of the British in India, literacy was the il lustrations and in course of time local artists were no longer novices in the confined to Brahmins, Moulavies and the educated elite. With the introduction of field of reproduction. The earl iest example of a signed printed illustration appears the British educational system which covered the middle class as well as the less in a Bengali book, Oonoodha Mongol, written by Bharat Chandra, pu blished by fortunate section of society, printing- activities really flourished. Manuscripts, which Ganga Kishore Bhattacharjee and printed at the press of Ferris and Co., Calcutta, were the traditional means of education, could not cope w ith the increasing in 1816, which has two engraved illustrations bea ring the declaration: 'Engraved demand for mass education. Only mechanical printing could meet this demand. by Ramchand Roy'. Out of six illustrations, Ram chand Roy did two metal plate From this time onwards t he European educational system slowly replaced the engravings for Oonoodha Mongol, while the rest were anonymous and printed in traditional Indian Tou/1 and Madrasa education and the Indian social scene began relief process of wood-cut. The technique of graphic art was introduced in the to change from the beginning of the nineteenth century. teaching programme of art schools from an early stage and special interest was paid to wood engraving, wood-cut and lithography. We are to note, however, that As the Portuguese started mechanical book printing in India, the Britishers started the graphic arts were taught in those schools as a medium of moss-reproduction or printing pictu res and illustrations during the last part of the eighteenth century. re-duplication of a picture rather than as a creative medium . On the other hand, Among the many foreign artists who worked in India and took a special interest in graphic art hod already established itself os a creative medium in Eu rope from the printmaking were Caleb John Garbrant, William Daniell, James Moffat, Henry middle of the fifteenth century and European teachers w ere aware of t hese Hudson, F.B. Solvyns Avon Apjon, Charles D'Oyly, Richard Brittridge and William developments. However, graph ic art foi led to make headway in the newly Ba ilie. Whether printmoking on a large sca le could be possible in India was first organised art schools in India, because priority was given to teaching illustration and explored by William Daniell and Thomas Daniel!. During 1l86 and 1788 the copy work. Apart from the art schools, graphic arts were already in vogue in India Daniells published on album based on William's own drawings, 'Twelve views of as illustrations for printed books, journals and magazines in the vernacular and in Calcutta ', containing twelve original etchings. The album was printed in Calcutta. English from the beginning of the nineteenth century. The illustrations were made All the etch ings were printed in monochrome and stained in colour ink. The out of wood-cuts, wood engraving, metal plate engravings, etchings and example of Daniel! evoked interest among his contemporaries and led them to lithographs. publish their works. These foreign artists published their drawings based on topographic scenes, manners and customs, ethnological antiquities, natural history, From 1870 onwards several private presses flourished in different parts of India. and so on, printed in etching and engraving, and following the intaglio printing From these secular and religious prints flooded the local market and become process. From the evidence available, we may assume that local artists and popular among Indians. From this time onwards these prints set an unprecedented craftsmen learnt the printmaking technique from visiting European artists who example in promoting mass-communication in India. These wood-cut prints are worked in India and at the Company's printing office, which was set up in 1779 in generally in monochrome and sta ined in colour inks, while the lithogra phs are Calcutta. Though, in the beginning, the local artists were una ble to grasp the mostly polychromatic. The notable areas of concentration of these presses were technique, as it was not in their traditional practice, they slowly adopted the Ca lcutta, Dacca , Bombay, Poona, Lucknow, Delhi, Madras, Mysore and the 6 process. Pu njab. 7 Ravi Varma, the first Indian modern artist who consciously exploited the graphic the local market. All these problems did not allow much mobility and progress in medium to reach out to the maximum number of Indian people through his graphic art before 1950. religious and social themes, established his own lithographic press at Ghatkapore in Bombay during the last decade of the nineteenth century. The technique of printing evolved in Europe required continuous research in the field. After 1950 Indian artists also found wider scope to explore in various media. In 1915 the Tagore family of Calcutta established the 'Vichitra Club' at their Generally speaking, from the middle of the nineteenth century, graphic art became ancestral home at Jorasanko. Mukul Chandra Dey, an active member of the club, more of a personal expression than parasitic, more aesthetic than merely went to America in 19.16-17 and learnt the technique of etching from James reproductive or illustrative. With the newly evolved language and its special Blinding Slane . He came down to India in 1917 and started doing etching. Once character graphic art became self-sufficient, independent and more forceful and again, in 1920, he went to England and studied etching and engraving under expressive than previous work in the area which was far removed from trade and Mourhead Bone. He came back to India in 1926 and by this time had already commerce. The twentieth century's new technocrafts of printing and the established himself as a printmaker. He was the first Indian artist who went combination of photomechanical process enlarged the scope and possibilit ies of abroad to learn the graphic technique. At the 'Vichitra Club' Gaganendranath graphic art for artistic expression. Tagore took special interest in lithography. He set up his own press and published an album of his punning pictures.

We see an important change in the approach towards graphics from this time onwards. For the first time Indian artists were not too concerned with the reproductive value of the graphic media. In fact, they concentrated more on doing a 'complete ' work by itself, which could stand out as an independent work of art.

With the establishment of Kala Bhavan in 1921 , graphic art became a major med ium among a few artists. The credit for creating intense interest in creative graphic art during this period should go to Ramendranath Chakravorty, Manindra Bhusan Gupta and Biswarup Bose. They experimented and created a number of wood-cuts, lino-cuts and etchings. During the 1930s, a different aim cou ld be noticed in the graphic works of Nandalal Bose. He had experimented w ith various graphic media :wood-cut, lino-cut, etching, dry-point, lithographs and non traditional matrix such as cement blocks.

Before 1950, in other centres, artists like Raufdar, Y.K. Sukla, L.M. Sen, Muralidhar Tali and Safiuddin Ahmad devoted themselves to the graphic media. Though printmaking had been used among Indian artists for creative expression since 1915, it was largely insular before 1950. One of the most important reasons for this, was the lack of technical know -how. Besides, materials were not readily available from 8 9 2 5 6 --=:]

.3 7 8

1. ANANDA PRASAD BAGCHI, From Antiquities of Orissa. Lithograph, 3 1 X 31 .5 cm , 1870, Govt. College of Arts & C rafts, Calcutta. 5. CHITRASHALA PRESS, Orang Otang, Lithograph, 48 x 33.5 cm, 1910, Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan .

2. __ Bhaskaranand Swami. Lithograph, 36 X 25.5 cm, 1880, Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan. 6. N.L. DUTIA , Darupaddi's Vastraharan. Woodcut. 39 X 26 cm, 1880, Sri R.P. Gupta, Calcutta. 3. __ Shree Samartha Ram Dass. Lithograph, 47.5 X 34.5 cm. 1890, Sri Nirmalendu Das. Santiniketan. 7. M. DHURANDAR, Shivaji Ram Dass Bhet, Oleograph, 50.5 X 36 cm, -.Sri Nirmalendu Das. Santiniketan. 4. RAV I VARMA PRESS ..._ __.. , Oleograph, 31.5 X 21.5 cm, 1890, Sri Nirmalendu Das. Santiniketan. 8. - . Man beating a woman. Lithograph, 24 x 2 1 cm. 1880, Rasaja Foundation, New Delhi. 9 10

13 14

12

15

11

9. --· _ __, Lithograph, 42 x 55 cm, 1880, Rasaja Foundation. New Delhi. 13 SUKUMAR DEOSKAR, VIllage Life, Woodcut, 13 x 9 cm, - , Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan.

10. MUKUL CHANDRA DEY, River Life, Etching, 17 X 22 cm, 1919, Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan. 14. RAM KINK ER BAIZ, Do or Die, Linocul, 26 X 16 cm, - ,Sri Nirmalendu Das, Santiniketan.

11 . NANDALAL BOSE, Gandhiji, Linocut, 31 x 19 cm, 1930, Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan. 15. BINODE BEHARI MUKHERJEE, Man with a Carrier, Lithograph, 36 X 26.5 cm, 1971 , Sri Nirmalendu Das, Santiniketan . 12. RAMENDRANATH CHAKRAVARTY, Men around the boats, Colour Woodcut, 14 x 21.5 cm, 1936, Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan . 16. CHUNILAL DAS, Antiquity of Orissa, Lithograph, 54.5 x 33.5 cm, 1880, Govt. College of Arts & Crafts, Calcutta. GRAPHIC ART IN INDIA SINCE 1850 LIST OF WORKS - HISTORICAL SECTION

Name of the artist SI. No. Title - Medium - Size in cm Year Collection

ANANDA PRASAD BAGCHI From AnttqUittes of Onsso; 1870 Govt. College of Arts & Lithograph; 31 X 13.5 Crofts. Calcutta. 2 Bhoskoronond Swomt, 1880 Kola Bhovon, Ltthogroph; 36 X 25.5 Son tiniketon. 3 Shree Somortho Ram Doss; 1890 Sri Nirmolendu Dos, Li thograph; 47.5 X 34.5 Son tiniketon. 4 Kumudosondort, 1890 Sn R.P. Gupto, Calcutta. Li thograph; 39.5 X 28.5 18 17 RA VI V ARMA PRESS 5 1890 Sn Nirmolendu Dos, Oleogroph; 31.5 X 21 .5 Sontmiketon. 6 Annopurno, 1890 Kola Bhovon, Lithograph; 37 X 26.5 Sontiniketon. CHITRASHALA PRESS 7 Orong Otong; 191 0 Kola Bhovon, Lithog raph ; 48 X 33.5 Sontiniketon. N RITYALAL DUTTA 8 Two Ftsh & Two Parrots; 1880 Sri R.P. Gupto, Calcutta. Woodcu t: 44.5 X 55 NL DUTTA 9 Darupaddt 's Vostrohoron; 1880 Sn R.P. Gupto, Calcutta. Woodcut; 39 X 26 KARTIK CHANDRA BASAK 10 1870 Kola Bhovon , Woodcut; 47.5 X 30 Sonttniketon. 11 Processton. 1890 Rosa1a Foundation. Woodcut; 14 x 23 New Delhi. M. DH URAN DAR 12 Shtvaft Ram Doss Bhet; Sn Nirmalendu Dos, 20 Oleogroph; 50.5 X 36 Sontmiketan. RA VI VARMA 13 Hans and Damyantt, Sn R.P. Gupto, Calcutta. 19 Oleograph; 49 X 35 14 Man beottng a woman; 1880 Ra1asa Foundation, 17. __ Famine, Oleograph, 26.5 x 22 cm, - , Govt. College of Arts & Crafts, Calcutta. Lithograph· 24 X 21 New Delhi. 18. B.P. BANERJEE, Kaikaye & Manthana, Oleograph, 51 .5 x 38 cm,-, Sri Nirmalendu Das, Santiniketan . 19. _ Begging Woman, Lithograph, 39.5 x 28.5 cm,-. Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan. 20. _ _ Ganesh on a Cow, Lithograph, 14.5 x 20.3 cm, - , Rasaja Foundation. New Delhi. .:

N ame of the artist SI. No. Title - Medium - Size in cm Year Collection Name of the artist SI. No. Title - Medium - Size in cm Year Colledion * 15 Ganesh. 1880 Roso1o Foundation, Lithogrorh· 20 X 14.5 New Delhi. RAM KINKAR BAIZ 31 Draught; 1976 Sri Nirmolendu Dos, 16 Nooqahan 8 Kmg Akbar; 1890 Sn Ram Gopol Vijoy Lithograph; 37.5 X 56 Sontiniketon. Lithograph· 43.5 X 54.5 Vorg1. Jo1pur. RAM KINKAR BAIZ 32 Do or D1e; Sri N irmolendu Dos, 17 Gcnesh 8 other Panels; 1890 Linocut; 26 X 16 5 Usho Kont Mehto. Sontiniketon. Woodcut· lOO X 51 Borodo. BINODE BEHARI M UKHERJ EE 33 Man with c carrier; 1971 Sri Nirmolendu Dos, 18 1880 RosOJO Foundot1on. Lithograph· 36 X .26.5 Sontiniketon. U.N . MUKHERJEE 34 L1thogroph· 42 X 55 New Delh 1. Portrait of Sadi; 1880 Govt. College of Arts & Lithograph· 70.5 x 43 * 19 Dancing Women: 1880 RosojO Foundot1on. Crofts, Calcutta. CHUNILAL DASS 35 Lithograph· 20.5 X 16 New Delhi . Antiquity of Orissc; 1880 Govt. College of Arts & Lithograph· 54.5 X 33.5 M UKUL CHANDRA DEY 20 River Life: 1919 Kola Bhovon, Crofts, Calcutta. 36 Etching· 1 7 X 22 Sontmiketon. Hcnumcn tearing his Heart; Sri N irmolendu Dos, Oleogroph; 34.5 X 24.5 NANDALAL BOSE 21 Gandhi!'· 1930 Kola Bhovon. Sontiniketon. 37 Linocut· 31 X 19 Sontm1keton. Pcrvcti-Shcnkcr; Sri N irmolendu Dos, Lithograph; 40 X 28.5 RAMENDRA NA TH CHAKRAV ARTY 22 Men around the boots; 1936 Kola Bhovon, Sontiniketon. 38 Colour Woodcut· 14 X 21.5 Sontin1keton. Episodes of Life; Sri Nirmolendu Dos, Oleogroph· 38 X 28 B. KAN KARA N 23 Hut, Tree 8 the Bullock Ccrt; 1946 Kola Bhovon, Sontiniketon. 39 Famine; Linocut 22 .5 X 13.5 Sontiniketon. Govt. College of Arts & Oleogroph; 26.5 X 22 M.B. GUPTA 24 Landscape; Kola Bhovon, Crofts, Calcutta. B.P. BANERJ EE 40 Linocut· 17 X 21 Sontin1keton. Kcikaye 8 Menthane; Sri N irmolendu Dos, O leogroph; 51.5 X 38 SUKUM AR DEOS KAR 25 Village L1fe; Kola Bhovon, Sontiniketon. 41 Woodcut· 13 X 9 Sontiniketon. Begging Woman; Kola Bhovon, Lithograph; 39.5 X 28.5 V.S. MASOJI 26 Two Women; Kola Bhovon, Sontmiketon Lithograph· 13 X 17 Sontiniketon. 42 Golcp Sundcri; Sri R.P. Gupto, Calcutta. SAFIUDDIN A HM ED 27 The School Pond; 1940 Govt. College of Arts & Lithograph; 38.5 X 28.5 Linocut· 19 X 12 Crofts, Calcutta. 43 Krishna playing flute; Roso jo Foundation, X MU R ALID HA~ T A LI 28 House on the top of the tree; 1940 Govt. College of Arts & Lithograph; 21.5 13.7 New Delhi. Etchmg· 16.5 X 8 Crofts, Calcutta. 44 Ganesh on a cow; Roso jo Foundation, AN IMUL ISLAM 29 The bcrkmg dog; 1940 Govt. College of Arts & Lithograph; 14.5 X 20.3 New Delhi. Lithograph; 38 X 56 Crofts, Calcutta. DAMODAR HA LDAR *45 Anotonie - cebcnde in Greifswcld; 1870 Govt. College of Arts & BINODE BEHA RI M UKHERJEE 30 Sketch; 1970 Sri Nirmolendu Dos, Lithograph; 63 x 39 Crofts, Calcutta. Lithograph· 38 X 28 Son tiniketon. SASADHAR BANERJEE *46 Lithograph. Govt. College of Arts & Crofts, Calcutta. ' 15 & 19 mounted 1n one frame. • SI. No. 45 & 46 mounted in one frame CONTEMPORARY GRAPHICS IN INDIA

1. Jaya Appasamy freei ng the process for original work, distinct from the copying and documentation that had prevailed until then.

A genuinely different aim could be seen in the work of the Santiniketan School Among the modern visual media two have seen a spectacular development and especially in the work of Nandalal Bose and Binode Behari Mukherjee. A prosaic evolved compl ex forms in the twentieth century - namely, cinematography and and genre style developed at Calcutta as exemplified by the portraits and printmaking. The ci nema is a medium which is entirely new it has drawn into its landscapes of M ukul Dey, Ramendranath Chakravorty and Manibhusan Gupta. In fold the other performing arts, but it is more than a mere synthesis of these, for it is Bom bay artists of the same period show a weaker or more romantic variation of created in new terms and in a new language. Also it is linked with technological the prevalent style as instanced by the work of Y.K . Shukla. processes and its progress is based partly on scientific inventions. Graphic media on the other hand are comparatively old. The processes of printing were for years The work of Mukul Dey was not influenced by the Bengal School. Though trained in current commercial use, supplying documentation and illustration to w riting. m London his portraits in etching are related to the style set by Abanindranath However, after the invention of machine printing and photographic reproduction Tagore with its emphasis on drawing and the interest in "character". Indeed many graphic processes are no longer used in their former role. Reproduction for of them have an unfinished appearance as the artist is only concerned with the commercial printing is clearly separated from graphic prints, the latter are designed portrayal of the head. Mukul Dey did a great many portraits of the ce lebrities of by artists and printed by hand. Thus its non-commercialisation has , as a matter of his times, most of them have a predominantly narrative interest. His landscapes, fact, given graph ic work a new lease of life. For now it is practised by artists which are few, are reminiscent of the work of Muirhead Bone. Ramendranath purely for aesthetic expression and is recognised as a creative art in its own right. Chakravorty studied art at Santiniketan, but developed a considerable interest in etching. He had a rather prosaic style which delighted in a detailed description of Modern grpahic techniques were introduced into India by the British and were life around him. A later artist of this trend is Haren Dos who continues with genre practised throughout the nineteenth and in the early part of the twentieth century. themes embellished with elaborate texture and detail. On the other hand, some of The r01son d 'etre of this style was to illustrate books and journals. Such work often the other early practitioners of etching seem to have used the print process only for documented the life of the past or was of religious or epic themes. This type of multiplying reproductions, the works themselves resembling drawings. reporting or copying continued to be in vogue till the 1920s and survives even to Samarendranath Gupta's graphic work simulates sketches done in pen and ink, the present day. Engraving, etching and lithography were subjects taught at the while that of Roop Krishna is close to wash pa inting. M.A. Chughtai also did a government art schools from approximately 1855 but the style followed there was large number of works very like line drawings and incorporating the roma ntic based on making light and shade studies and showed little originality. Some of the imagery of the period. important books published in the latter half of the nineteenth century were actually illustrated by lithographs and engravings done by students from the art schools. The Santiniketan School benefited by the visit of the graphic artist Andre Karpeles. However, the artists there practised print med ia only occasionally. Nandalal Bose's The earliest aritst who tried to do something different and original using print work is dominated by a sense of design and clear black and white arrangement as, medium was Gaganendranath Tagore, though perha ps his interest in it was only for example, in his illustrations to Rabindranath's book for children, "Shahaj Path " partial, since he used the print process for his ca ricatures, that is, more to spread done in 1929. He also did some stylised portraits of Gandhiji and Abdul Ghaffar ideas than as an end in itself. The lithographic cartoons which Gaganendranath Khan (which are quite well-known) in the second half of the 1930s. His interest in 20 created may not be considered very important as art; however, he succeeded in etching came later and in this medium he generally chose subjects from nature and 21 textural surfaces seen in painting. Forms become broken up and there was a treated them in a naturalistic way rather like sketches. A large number of younger tendency directed away from rea lity and towards abstraction. The work of an artists of the Santiniketan School practised graphic techniques briefly. Early prints artist like Kanwal Krishna is typical in displayi ng these characteristics. A number of can be seen in the Visva Bharati Quarterly, V.B. Patrika and other Sa ntiniketan other artists also started to use soft ground processes w hich were capable of a publicaitons. Nandalal 's son Biswarup Base studied coloured woodcut printing in wide ra nge of com plex effects. New techniques such as si lkscreen , colour Japan and later taught this medium at Kala Bhavan. However, the most significant lithography and mixed media were experimented with. work done there was probably that of Binode Behari Mukherjee whose powerful compositions treat both woodcut and etching in a modern way. In them is seen a This new phase in printmaki ng may be said to have arrived with the 1960s. If till respect for form and a feel ing for abstract values which give these works a rugged this decade the output was meagre and ind ividual, after this one may discuss power. Especially notable are his landscapes in woodcut and linoleum done collective styles and schools. The graphic departments of art schools were approximately in the decade 1936-45. They have a strong well-knit texture, revitalised giving rise to a large number of artists devoted on ly to this medium. The powerful movement and an organic feel. One is reminded of the work of number of printmakers now at work whose prints have been seen at the National Jawlensky and other German expressionists. In his later years Bi node Behari Exhibitions and other collective shows exceeds one hundred. Needless to say the Mukherjee also practised lithography, the style of his works in this is rather closely quality of the work, its techn ical excellence, its variety and ach ievement place print related to his later calligraphic painting. In other parts of India a number of media in the forefront of our artistic expression. More than one All India Exhibition contemporaneous artists also worked with print media intermittently, among the of Prints has been held where one cou ld see the range and performance of our more successful of them mention may be made of L. M. Sen of Lucknow. printmakers. India is represented at International Print Exh ibitions held at Lugano and elsewhere and her artists have won awards. The present situation is therefore The disturbed conditions in art in the period of transition following Independence one that is healthy and confident and we would not be far wrong to hove great were not a suitable environment for the development of printmaking. We have also expectations of our young printmokers. seen that hardly any artists devoted themselves to graphic art entirely, there was indeed little demand for prints. Among the younger men working at this time, two In conclusion printmaking ca n be cons idered a modern medium par excellence. have done a body of work showing strong personal styles, also they can be considered printmakers exclusively- namely, Haren Dos and Chittoprasad. Firstly, it is a synthesis of the artist 's talent and technical processes, it combines in itself both discipline and play, craftsmansh ip and imagination, and design, Haren Dos's work has already been cited. His subject-matter is usually landscape, acc i d~nt the woodcut print displays a pattern of varied textures and motifs form ing an over­ and a personal expression strained and filtered through complex processes. Each print far from being a descriptive record of life is a dynamic new reality, increasing all pattern. Chittoprasad 's work reflects the inspirations of folk art. His styl ised life and the areas of our perception. Forms take birth in the artist's mi nd, but in the woodcuts have a bold treatment and are sometimes frankly based on folk antecedents. The themes - dancers, rural scenes or folk images - are stages of printmaking these forms change and evolve presenting a choice of new characteristic of the period as a whole. variations. The elements w hich go to make a print are thus selected from many possi bilities and grow together in an inevitable relationship forged by the artist's will. In the end we are not concerned w ith the processes or the labour of the period The 1950s may be considered a period of ferment and read justment in Indian Art. In painting a strong movement with varied imagery developed, in scul pture new of growth, what confronts us is the result - a work of art which is an original but materials and images were being sought. In graphic art the ground for a can be reproduced and which moves us by its aesthetic significance alone. development was in preparation. We see a gradual increase in interest in pri nts, 22 colour began to be used and there was a specific interest in textures, paralleling t he 23 2. Ratan Parimoo arrangements of simple block and white areas embellished with texture and line. Because of their small size they almost look like Indian miniatures in block and white. The Sixties hove been, in particular, a very productive decode with the emergence of the pointers Vinod Ray Potel and Joyont Porikh as notable Boroda has been in the forefront in the field of Graphic Arts for the lost two printmokers possessing natural inclination for the graphic medi um. decodes even if her achievements may not be so spectacular. The Faculty of Fine A rts here has served as a major training ground providing a permanent and Jayont Porikh (born 1941 ) has shown his brilliance in the woodcut process. His suitably equipped place for various printmaking tech niques. lt is a field where it is main emphasis is on texture. For making his prints, Parikh has exploited wood, not possible to work without the necessary technical equipment which until recently linoleum, hardboard and plywood. Not only do they all have different textures could not be procured easily within the country and which is beyond the means of which show in the print, they also cut differently. Because of the varying structure on individual to afford. Hence, the importance of a workshop, with some of the of their grains they react to the cutting tools and the pressu re of the creator's hand basic mechanical requirements, the back-bone of which has been the techn ical in different ways leaving different cut marks. In his search for new textures, he guidance of N.B. Joglekor. collected many kinds of old weathered wood and printed directly from them. He also made rubbings from time-worn dilapidated stone pavements. Here the Many of the artists either teach ing in or trained at Barodo hove hod the benefit of irregular shapes of stones and their rough su rfaces produced by years of use and this workshop several of whom hove tried their hand at printmaking sometime or rubbing of feet give new effects. These impressions ore later trimmed to convert the other. The workshop is now coaching post-graduate students in the graphic into integrated designs. His recent intaglio-rel ief prints (taken from a master image processes. Among the worthy joint efforts in printing mention may be mode of a of cord-board collage) are more complex and pa instakingly done. The results vary set of calendars of artists' lithographs and a delightful fable book illustrated by from merely prosaic to visually striking effects. K.G. Su bromanyan in his own kind of flat stylization. A lthough Vinod Ray Pate! began with lino-cuts his output in lithography is considerable. His lithographs 'ore mostly nude compositions of buxom , voluptuous Notable among the outsiders who have received training here and who have figures with exaggerated femi ninity achieved by accentuating the curves of hips and established themselves in their respective places are Jai Krishan (of Lucknow) and breasts. Their long hair floats in waves, the hands ore ra ised upwards or cover the the Hyderabad artists Laxma Gaud, Gauri Shanker (woodcut) and Dev Ra j (Litho & faces os if in shame. Thei r movements ore languorous as if controlled by some Etching). I shall here only discuss those who have shown sustained interest in external power. The fatalism and the melancholy of the somnambulistic figures graphics and have produced significant work in any one of the processes. A together with the frequent presence of the sinuous motif of a cobra makes the number of them are primarily painters. Therefore, their prints derive much from theme of these lithographs quite puzzl ing. They could also be regarded as their pointerly pre-occupation. The experiments range from working with drawings with on excellent cohesion achieved between line and tone. conventional techniques and the potentialities of the printmaking media to exploring the peculiar language of the medium in a bid to do more than merely He has also made a series of line engravings using plastic sheets as a substitute for translate a painting into a print. t_he conventional but expensive metal plates depicting simi lar imagery as in the lithographs. Here the line is more delicate and taut and the distortions more In the Fifties, Shanti Dove hod done a great many lino-cuts and was probabl y t he varied. ~ons i dering Patel 's entire graphic output including the recent lithographic fi rst to work in large sizes. He was fascinated by the illustrative possi bilities of this set of wmged skeletons one cannot help appreciating his rich and w idening 24 medium. His illustrations of Geeta-Govindo are clean, crisp and sharply cut repertoire of imagery. 25 Notable work in lithog raphy has also been done by Noino Dolo!, Kishore Wolo and fine craftsmanly quality found in his paintings is revealed in his etchings too, where Megon Pormar. Noino studied lithography in London. Her ~ork is_alway s based line and contour form the basis of del ineation combined with textural and relief on 0 theme usually expressed through the human figure. Wh ile foong her _canvas effects w hich ore peculiar to the print process. In them , therefore, the quality of she finds images storing at her deformed , misshapen, miserable human be 1ngs illustration is uppermost. Thus his prints ore not merely coloured textured surfaces who unconsciously encroach into whatever she points or draws. Such them_es ore into which many of the etchings somehow seem to fall, but hove on underlying much suited to the medi um of lithography, where with deep blocks contrastmg meaning. Meticulously planned and carefully printed they ore conceived in terms of sharply with whites, it is possibl e to intensify their expressiveness. They could on integrated whole os design and image in which the diagram and the symbol represent the hideousness of the leper, the pathos of the beggar or the ploy interchoning roles. apprehensive melancholy of the sod-eyed adolescent. Noino ~ o s obh~rren<;e of the graceful and the delicate yet there is a certain lyrical element 1n the msp tonal Finally, I must mention the sculptor, Rojn ikont Poncho! , though he is not very prolific variations of her prints. but with a fine and sensitive graphic sense. He has tried both woodcuts and etchings and recently produced a small story book for children with lino-cut. In the some class con be included the lithographs of Kishore Wolo now working at Ro jkot. The horse has been his persistent them ~ to t~ e point of obsession. He has In Rojkot, the Bombay trained pointer, Monho r Mokwono, has been doing woodcut portrayed the horse in various moods, stomped1ng w 1th comrades, huddled w 1th the and monotype prints for the lost few years. His prints ore simple, usually a line family, in tender movements of the necking lovers wh1ch moke th~m. so human. configuration in w hite on block or vice verso with interludes of textural passages The artist has felt with the horse, os it were, dealing w ith the vonot1ons on the consisting of cut marks or impressions of wood groins. theme os in a biography. Such on interpretation of the obsessive_image p:obobly reflects the personal psyche of the ortist whose unfortunote phys1col h o~d 1cop _also In Bombay one must mention the establishment of Shilolekh during the mid­ portly explains certain naivete and on occosionol loose~ess o~ the drowmg: His nineteen-fifties os a result of the joint efforts of Husoin, Ram Kumor and others. prints ore built up in dense dark tones, each time there 1s a d1fferent group1ng , The scheme was to provide workshop facil ities and arrangement of pulling out varied movements and surprising arrangements. prints in editions from plates prepared by artists. Since prints ore priced more Mogon Pormor's lithographic and rel ief prints ore noted fo: their noi_ve imoge_ry . moderately it was hoped that it would attract more buyers thus serving the dual w hich is both folk and ch ildlike. Having hod a long ocquomtonce w1th the pnnt1 ng purpose of providing a means of livelihood for the artists os well os to popularise their work. Apart from bringing out a handful of prints this arrangement did not process but no academic training, there is no obvious conflict betwe~n pointerly hold for long . In recent years Roy Dolgorno has been trying a similar scheme. He concepts and the graphic language. His imagery is op~ropnotel y su1toble to the medium , rather he thinks through the med ium and f1ts 1n w 1th the most . himself is on accomplished craftsman particularly in the lithographic process. characteristic quality of printmoking, visual ly communicating personal poetry. H 1s Another prominent printmoker is the widely travelled Bhupendro Korio, whose prints ore 0 poetic transformation of a rurol setting mingling the sil h ou~tted_ forms of foliage and animals. In them one does not, therefore, look for techn1col fmesse range of techniques includes silk screen , lithography and lino-cut but is more but the richness and the varied levels of meaning. He is undoubtedly on inclined towards photography. He has received training in Japan and U.S.A. His outstanding Indian naive artist. prints consist of configurations of marks and patches of colligrophic passages and scribbles, os formal exercises in two-dimensional arrangements of shapes, tones The prominent etcher in Borodo is Jyoti Bhott w ho has concentr~ted on the intaglio and textures which ore at itmes inert but often staidly lyrical. process which he mastered during a two-year training in the Un1ted States. The 26 27 3. S A Krishnan Jagmohan Chopra, Bhupendra Karia, Manhar Makwana, Jayant Parikh, R. Vardarajan, Krishna Reddy, Akbar Padamsee Parikh, Kanwal Krishna, Devayani Krishna and Somnath Hore. I do not know if the facilities provided by the Si lpi Chakra were fully utilised but it opened the way and interested many artists in the The practice of printmaking , as a serious artistic form, able to stand on its own possibilities of the med ium. without any concessions, is probably not more than a score of years old in the Delhi area. Our artists here started to be interested in it about a decade ago. Although The real credit for creating the necessary cl imate for the medium in Delhi must, historically speaking some very notable contributions were made, principally by however, go to the excellent graphicist Somnath Hore and Kanwal Krishna and Binode Behari Mukherjee. Ramendranath Chakravorty, Mukul De, Jagdish and more recently, to that very zealous artist Jagmohan Chopra. Hore, who was ' Kamal Mittal, Haren Dos, Y.K. Shukla and others, these artists, however valuable already a graphic artist and a lecturer at the Indian College of Art and their contribution, do not strictly belong to the contemporary graphic milieu. Draftsmonship, Calcutta, came to Delhi in 1958 and was placed in charge of the grop~ i c se~ion of the Del hi College of Art. He commiss ioned on outmoded printing Looking into some of the old catalogues of the National Exh ibition of Art, I found machme lymg 1dle there and set to work. Inspired by the veteran Krishna Reddy that in 1964 there were only twenty-three exh ibits listed in the graphic section out and even more by the humanism of Kathe Kollwitz, and w ith sufficient experience of which just a dozen came from Delh i and its vicinity. Two years earlier, in 1962, as a wood engrave, Somnath Hare applied himself to metal engraving with tenacity there were only seven graphics. The position improved in 1967 with some sixteen and devotion and is now acknowledged os one of our most gifted and experienced graphics from Delhi and the north out of a total of thirty-two in the list. The graphicists. graphic medium began gathering strength from 1965 and by 1970 there were as many as sixty-six graphics on display, at least half of w hich were contributed by the Kanwal Krishno who isas well known, had worked at the graphic press even before artists of the Delh i area. The medium has now, beyond doubt, caught the he went to Paris to Hoyter's Atelier 17. He was engrossed with the immense imagination of a number of senior artists, and an even larger nu mber of young possibilities of the monoprint technique to start w ith, but gradually discovered the artists. This perhaps is also true in general all over the cou ntry. Even a random phenomenal technical ra nge of intaglio printing. The orthodox method of metal survey brings to mind the work of Jagmohan Chopra, Sanat Kar, Dipak Banerjee, o~d acid ~r i nti~g w it ~ all its engraving, etching and acquotint effects did not satisfy Bimal Banerjee, Suhas Roy, Jyoti M. Bhatt, R. Va radarajan, Badri Narayan, Haroon h1s essent1ally· 1nvent1ve temperament. He left it all behind and resorted to a Khimani, Jai Krishna, Manhar Makwana, Arun Base, Gunen Ganguli, Sunirmal combination of relief and intaglio process by building demarcated relief areas w ith Chatterji, Mansingh Charra, Jivan Adalja, A.P. Jagannathan, Paneer Selvam, a_ whole range of different materials, including collage and adhesives to build up Jayant Parikh and Mohammed Yasin. I have not mentioned Kanwal Krishna and d1fferent levels. With this and the employment of rollers of varying hardnesses, Devayani or Somnath Hore, who actually belong to a senior category, nor the host Kanwal was able to achieve results which combined the best of both the of talented you nger graphicists whose work forms the bu lk of contemporary conventional and his own innovated methods. Whatever limitations his method production. may hove imposed, it produced results which satisfied his restless, search ing mind. A pronounced introvert, Konwol had em barked upon on inward journey into the The Delhi Silpi Chakra held the first All India Graphic Show in 1965. (This subl iminal recesses of his own mind, at a time when most artists, pa inters, organisation had acquired a printing press some two years before, w hich grophicists and sculptors were preoccupied with a casua l and facile content or supplemented the litho press they already had.) lt was a modest but significant merely w restled w ith surface effects. Essentially of a contemplative origin and 28 show with only fifty-one works by thirty-three artists with notable contributions by expression, Kanwal Krishno's graphics, with their iridiscent light effects ach ieved by 29 his complex technical process and compelling references to the spiritual or the Chopra is also the moving spirit of the "Group 8" of Delhi, on association of effulgent light, and other mysterious realms, ore the result of intense concentration working printmakers, most of w hom ore senior students of the Delhi College of Art on a meditative level and in effect abstract visions of a kind of personal awareness. where he has token over teaching graphics from Hore. lt is mostly due to his keen interest in the students that they hove been able to do so well in recent years. As Devoyoni Krishno. who is an excellent grophicist in her own right, relies on similar an extension of this activity Chopro and his young colleagues joined hands in technical processes as those of Konwol. About three years ago, she came out with forming the "Group 8" in 1968. The inaugural show in September 1968 and the her Allah series intaglio relief prints. She highlighted the basic coll igrophic beauty second one in September 1969 mode a fine impression. The Group organised an of the arabic characters by cutting deep into the surface to release the glimmeri ng , excellent All India Graphic Exhibition in December the so me year. radiant areas of free forms which rose from the generally heavy, mystifying coloured background. Her subsequent series, Why and What, carried forward the Most of the members of the "Group 8" ore young artists or final year art students. some concept with high intaglio motifs of the interrogation of exclamation mark, They are prone to all the temptations and pitfalls of inexperience and hove yet to symbolic of questioning and wonder, taking the place of the orabic character. mature conceptually. Their preoccupation with all sorts of abstraction and non­ objective mannerism is understandable. That has been the way of many and these Jogmohon Chopro, who is the live-wire of the Delhi graphic world, owes much to youngsters ore happy with their fresh discovery. They find the si ngular effects of t he work of Somnoth Hore who inspired and encouraged him. He, too, prefers the the graphic technique intriguing and thrilling. Already some of these "Group 8" unconventional technical processes of paper block or mount board plates, artists hove produced works that hold considerable promise. Among them eng raving the relief, building with additives such os resins, polymers, oroldite Anupom Sood has already shown works of very fine potential. Then there are etc. He achieves a much voster and varied range of relief and intaglio surface than Yogshokti Chopro, and Lokshmi Dutt and some gifted students all of whom might is perhaps possible by the time-honoured metal and acid bite. The result often well produce enduring graphics. incorporates the qualities of both pointing and graphics. He achieves astonishing resu lts by studying t he particular qualities of the additive ground and manipulating Working at Delhi is also Mohammed Yosin from Hyderabod, now on the staff of the incisionol possibilities of the surface. Acquotint effect is produced by the use of the College of Art. After a period of hybernotion, following his return from the corborundum powder. His discreet method of colour application, pushed into given University of Hawaii and the Pratt Institute, he is now again at work at t he graphic areas or laid in varying degrees of transparency on raised surfaces has produced press. Soundly trained and very familiar with graphic processes, Yosin is modern extremely fascinating results. The method is capable of producing any desired without affectation and has a direct approach to the image. texture and depth-effect by successfully employing the collage and the cut-out and careful selection of rollers, from the most pl iable to the hardest. lt is said that it is Another graphic artist Zorino took many by surprise by her two excellent shows of not so much the plate but the preparation of the plate for the press that makes the woodcuts in 1968 and 1969. A very sensitive artist, trained at Atelier 17, Zorina print. Chopra 's method has its distinct advantage and it suits his temperament and gets the best out of her arrangements of plywood surfaces with an insight into the image concepts. His imagery covers on enormous ground from a most fantastic nature of the linear texture of the wood and seizes its print possibility instinctively. depiction of nature, or of the under-water world of thick foliage, or interwoven complex patterns of thicket and bracken, of coral rocks and weeds. He has learnt N.K. Dixit and Bimal Bo nerjee -also from Hayter's Atelier 17 - Umesh Vormo, to eschew the accidental and unwary effect and has now taken to specific formal Jivon Adolja, Gunen Gonguly and Joi Krishna (the lost works at Lucknow) are compositions different from his sensitive, rather temperamental work of t he earlier talented artists capable of producing competent graphics. Bimal Banerjee, Joi 30 years. Krishna and N .K. Dixit hove already shown works w ith subtle colour and sound 31 PRINTMAKING, A FLASHBACK

Keshav Malik technical understanding. Gunen Ganguly has specialised in monoprints and Sitanshu Roy, who is no longer active, showed sometime ago excellent mezotints and etchings. Laxman Pai , a painter who is also a graphicist, has to his cred it two fine portfolios of etchings on the Buddha and Gandhi themes. He seems to have again revived his interest in graphics and might well bring forth something Since this exhibition is a landmark in the development of contemporary printmaking worthwhile. Other artists who hove hod shows exclusively of prints in Delhi ore on the Ind ian scene it may perhaps be a good ideo to indulge in a kind of Pushpo Roo, Joi, Sotish Sharmo and Sotish Gupta. flashback . Having watched the growth of the art movement for a few decodes, I will take os my starting point the year 1960 and try to recapitulate, and put down on paper, the reactions I hove hod to some of our salient printmokers. A number of these ore represented in this show, some ore not. Some others ore a fresh crop, call them dark horses if you will. My recapitulation , therefore, does not sum up or exhaust the work of each and every one on the scene, post or present. However, it may in some small way afford to peep into what transpired in earlier years and upto now. The trends in printmoking may be read in -between the lines. Then, for the good reason that through these many years there were very many print exhibitions and pri nt workshops by foreign artists, it may not be a bad idea to give ourselves a comparative base also, in other words, to examine the standing of Indian printmoking relative to developments on the foreign scene. Without doubt a number of our artists ore influenced by what they see happening on the international scene. This is understandable. it may of course be that visiting printmokers may also hove learnt something from their Ind ian colleagues. Th is two way traffic of art and artists is certainly a health giving th ing.

Talking of printmokers w hat we ore· at once faced with is the technica l equipment necessary for this medium . Whi le rhe artist from the so-called developed world hove no lock of high technology our own artists hove to largely make do with such simpler or elementary devices , some that hove already been in use long ago. A workman ought not to quarrel with his tools but, os distinct from easel po inting with its much easi er demands on instrumentation, printmoking os on applied art has certain difficulties which cannot be ignored . Precis ion is one of the key va lues in a successfu l print, the kind of precision, os also the fa ithfulness of impression which only efficient machinery helps achieve.

There is another, some what more of a cu ltura l or historical facet which cannot be 32 ignored (perhaps technology or its lock ore a port of that), namely that high 33 technology already expresses the emphasis on innovation, invention, the opplicot1on more in line with pure forms , such being 'White Cohereing '. The effect was like of a coolly and carefully arrived at abstract thought to industry. Such that of electronic mus ic. The lost named artist's work was still too tentative. innovotiveness and inventiveness ore demanded by economic development and a high growth rote. Industry cannot go forward without organized research, The fi rst ever all India graphic exhibition was held in Delhi's Si/pi Chokro on designed primarily to augment and boost production. to make the servicing and the 12.5.1965. This show brought talent from across the country. If many exciting administration of the given society efficient. All these bind everyting to a time­ foreign printmokers hod already been seen in Ind ia, the Indians were now catching table. The fall out from these economic realities also affects art and designing; it up. Here were Jagmohan Chopra, Jai Kishan, Gouri Shankar, A kbar Padamsee. comes in the form of new technical processes, materials, os well os a sh ift in the Krishno Reddy, Konwol Krish no, Devyoni Krishno, Somenath Hore and Joyo personal attitudes and working methods of the artists . For good or ill there is a Apposwomy. Themes ra nged from figurative dreomwork too preoccupation w ith brisker intellectual commerce between artist and the whole society os well os microscopic forms, invisible to the naked eye. between artist and the art-minded public. At least there is a n appearance of this. The then young Sotish Gupto showed considerable talent in the med ium. In show Some of these factor still hove to appear on the Indian urban scene. The Indian after show ever since 1965 he did commendable monoprints. These were artist works, by and la rge, by hunches and intuitions. He lives in on ethos which is w ormhued, at times verging on the sulphuric. The artist managed yellows and reds steeped not in history in the making but in mythic time. Applied art at any rote is to much greater effect in works titled 'The Lost Stage ' and 'Yellow Bottle'. The late on the periphery of Indian industry, despite commercial advertising and Mogon Bhoi Soma and Nokli -Ram , both from humble stations in life, also did a copywriting. Thus both technically os well psychically or personally the Indian show of prints in '65. The former's was chi ld art, os in his posthumous show at printmoker, like the pointer, works at o more leisurely pace. His movement and A rt Heritage in Delhi recently. 'Wharf Variations' was his best print. Here the ch ild activity ore slower. These could be advantages for sure, but also drawbacks os we in t he man received free expression. Some work was distinctly folk, even tribal. approach printmoking . However, even os Indian easel pointing has come o long way from its recent begi nni ngs. shows promise and actual fulfilment although not The some year, 1965, Devyoni Krishno did a powerful piece titled Under the Roof os great o variety os may be expected. of God' with a red cross. The work with its religious tinge showed the rood she was to adopt later. The lines were simple, os though by someone untrained , To look back now, we should turn to the early sixties . Wh ile I will discuss some of but full of faith. Other works drew on shell patterns. Even when unsuccessful, the the artists in passing (memory bei ng what it is) I will also mention the work of serious intent of the artist was po lpobole, as in her 'Nomoste'. Somenoth Hore some of them at greater length, from time to time. But no value judgements ore was already among the foremost etchers in the country. His prints during this implied in such disparity. some year broke new ground in os much os they combined the intricate techniques of printmoking with figurative po inting, so that they hod naturalness os well os One of the earliest shows to come to mind was by that trio of artists Ambodos; deliberation. His hues were acid hues. There was o fictional fa iry story element to Himmot Shah and Swominothon. Of this group, the work of Ambodos was works like 'Woman, Chi ld, Birds', 'The flower', and 'Man and Woman'. The delectable. At a superficial glance the white surface of his prints seemed to be embossed tough was pa rticularly fine. Some works were o lacq uer-like red, done on covered w ith fine block ink scrawls. But after more careful viewing one was material other than paper. reworded with a fizz of efferevescent sensations. That artist's works carried titles from the organic sciences : l inear Growth ', 'Metabolism', 'Growth knows no In one of the then shows the works of R.K. Bhotnogor stood out, w ith o print in 34 Sequence '. Here were freizes of evolution in miniature. Himmot Shah 's work was blue. The artist hod arrived at true individuality. Usho Poscricho and Bimo l 35 Bonnerjee were other artists of note. The latter's work hod a Japanese touch. This Deep etchings were done by Vishwondhon at this time. Then there was the was in '66 March. Czechoslovak exhibition (in block and white) with a steely strength . Of these artists, Lebi went in for su rrealism ; naturalism in woodcuts was tried by Zmetok; By this time Group 8 hod become active in Delhi. Most of the Group's printmokers and the grotesque by Zelibsko. Here, in the main, was a Gothic world, which was were women, their mentor being Jogmohon Chopro. There was much uniformity in token in their stride by some of the Indian artists ; of cou rse there was ego that the Group, though also good technical knowledge of the med ium. it was hard to which calmed rather than disturbed, like Bombovo's litho prints. make one's choice but Sun ito Konvinde produced works os pretty os butterflies. Lokshm i Dutt exhibited her 'Child ' in red and Priyo Mukerjee's works hod lingic­ Jogmohon, in the meanwhile, continued w ith his work the following year with yonic connotations. Anupom Sud 's leggy compositions were already in evidence. 0 new show of abstractions for which t he viewer hod to hove on acquired taste. This Though working in on apparently narrow ambience these artists were trying to turn was the artist 's best period, saying a formal thing eloquently, more amply. His tints their limitations into strength. The polish, and the polished immaculate conception were wine-dark, blood-rich , w ith on imagery of diffused discordant patterns. The strategy mode for attractiveness. Indeed, this is why one goes for the graphic, i.e., lino compositions hod on individuality all their own. But the work decli ned, become for its sobriety and its mountain air freshness. Surely the lost in the hall mark of repetitive su bsequently. the print which has no self-conscious stance, os often is the case in the oil media. The impersonal values of the print makes it more detached in tone. Seen The n, at a print showing, we hod Shobho 's large flowing fig ures done in compositely, if Jogmohon Chopros were large on grand gestures, Lo kshmi Dutt was elongation. Here was much poetic strength. Romeshwor Brooto 's prints were more agitated, zig-zoggy; Konvinde obsessed with spheres, os if with a feeling for space, ambitious and these were the dark end of the spectrum. A lso Jiwon Adoljo's faces neatness and order. But the feel of texture was in all their bones. The delight was somewhat in the some line though less pointedly 80, showed the truth of man - in surfaces os if in bark and skin. the maker of beautiful things but a hell in himself. The now expatriate artist Bimol Bonnerjee's show that some year was listed as '0 '. The artist hod a likeable facility with white and rust. At his best these intaglios In the following year Gouri Shonkor put up his monoprints and constructions. This was not yet matured enough work though one could admire the technique. Dev were natural, rather too sim ilar works. Of course, in some of his works with Raj's new lithographs were very striking ones, 'Red Coctii' and 'Red Moon' being figures, Bonnerjee hod come down from his precious previous offerings. Then, one two fine instances. Here was a labour of love, with specialisation and narrowing more exhibition by Somenoth Hare proved him to be one of the top practitioners of of focus but also sensuous love. Urnesh Vermo 's offering was film ic w ith the art form. 'Eclipse', 'Enchantment' and 'Hope' were some of the tit les. Some something of the mysterious, wherea s Adoljo, in sti ll another show, went for still were rich in colour, others hod a dry, embossed feel. The coloured ones created the objects os also subjects like bi rds creeping out of spatial arrangements. dream, whereas the 'dry' ones hod reverberations of prehistoric cove pointing. With some works titled 'Weary', a weary quality was palpable in much of Hare's work In this period, the early sixties, delightful work was created by Zorina Hoshm i, os in the postures of his human figu res. But this was not the result of the drying up clea n, uncluttered and sophisticated . Zorino employed rich hues. The ba lance she of sensibility but a result of disenchantment with the work-a-day world. maintained between mossy greens and subtle worms being always refreshing. At this time a Soviet exh ibition provided much contrast and comparison. Here was Zorino's wh1te whirl ing grooves provided a forceful sense of movement. stone-cut, clean work in the litho genre. Both realistic and social as well romant ic themes were included. The work from that country may show many changes in the The A ll Ind ia Printmokers put up a show in the middle of 1969. Outstanding of 36 commg years. these were Jerom Pate!, Jyoti Bhott, K.G. Subramonyon , Devyon i Krishno, Poneer 37 Selvam, Zarina and Priya Mukerjee. The inspiration ranged from geometric planes For instance Zarina developed in some such vein, pursuing her rationality with to subconscious fragments or figments. Anupam showed works in the former single-mindedness though not without generic variations, i.e., vitality with the category and Zorino in the latter. Bimol Bannerjee too, was back with a fresh show barest of means. Dipok Bonneriee with his goy, controlled music, or else the tout proving that he hod learnt a lot during his New York stay and giving his work a sensibility of his rhythmic spore intaglios, was another. Zarina with her tidy fevered lively line. Poneer Selvom 's prints showed he knew his trade, os in his unornamental disposition showed her mind, reflecting as she did the hard-edged 'Seat of birth', 'Unknowable' and 'Curvilinear'. He was able to create fantastical contemporary sensibility. This was the shape of things to come. worlds of much hotness and blackness, symbolic of birth. Here, texture and theme blended splendidly to form a rich ensem ble. From out of the fortythree printmakers in the 'Graphics 70' show in Rabindra Bhavon, the copious inclusion of Krishno Reddy put all the rest in the shade. Repetitive or not, his work was loaded with the ore of lyrical ity : os if catching in By 1970, Paul Lingren hod set up his print workshops, and the result of his teaching split seconds the spilling bottles of fresh milk; the static life content becoming efforts was seen in the show by 103 Indian artists or novices. They hod matured unbounded, olive, brisk and pulsating; the bland whites absorbing the pigments of by courtesy of the Smithsonion Institute. Dolip Bokshi , M.K. Puri, Leno Biswos, w hat they fell on; a becoming not a being; not frozen intellectual objects but the Anupom Sud, Gopi Gojwani, Shobho Broota, Dev Raj and Joi Kishon profitted process of energy constantly cha ng ing and transforming. In contrast the myriad greatly, to go by their print workshop composition. But also must be mentioned Joi manners of the others were like stills, not a moving film. And as a still, Gulom Zhoratio, Paul Kol i, Himmat Shah, Amino Kor and, of course, Zarina. These artists Sheikh's landscape (an imaginary one) was on excercise in a new clarity of began to experiment more furiously. Loxmo Goud's dark-minded prints were the purpose. most striking.

In October '70 there arrived a large exhibition of prints from America proving that About this time there arrived a show of block prints from Canada. The artist was there had been (within fifteen yea rs) a renaissance of the arts in that country. Aba Boyfesky with his Red Indian legends, totems dnd masks. On the heels of this There was the feel of restlessness here which is a condition of minds on the move. come the twenty British printmokers' team. There were two tendencies in this Here w as invention as well os (thankfully) imagination. Deen Meeker was the best show, an extremely exhibitionistic idiom and the diametrically opposite, a very of this lot with his celestial cot, 'le Solei! ', the sun made into a spirit. Elsewhere was impersonal clinicolity. No golden mean seemed to be in evidence. Some of this plain geometry or else mordant worlds, the pretty, the chic or the dandy. may hove been indigestible to the Ind ian viewer, still ensconsed in his taboos. The Glamorous works, whether or not you moved to them deeply. The attempt to preponderate impression we hod here was of the fabricated non-image, os in breathe life into the junk of civi lisation. advertisement. Applied mathematics hod certainly made its home in the new sensibility (or its lock); the lab room and the dark room being adjuncts, the viewer In 1971 Treveni Kala Sangam 's graphics were put up for show, Konwol Krishna remaining emotionally sterile, thematically empty, but physically and cerebrally and Rano Habib showing much progress. This exh ibition showed that the younger olive, and on the look-out for the new with a view to renewing the accelerotedly artists were catching up fast . learning their trade. And that included on already opt fatiguing cells of creative imagination. Here, the styles hod some wit but no depth, A nupom Sud , never going w rong, not merely formally correct, never boring os only smooth surface. Only two of these printmakers gave us the genuine 'old time' sometimes in pointing. And, with figuration, her work climbed steeply. On the aesthetic experience - Edword Paolozzi with his Indian ca rpet patterns and Briget obverse, Poromjeet Singh's serigraphs hod yet to digest her 'foreignness', not yet Riley with her opticals following the tantalizing syndrome. With this show, too, the havi ng adopted to native conditions. Dev Raj and Jatin Dos, in their 1971 show, 38 Indian printmakers may well hove received some fresh ideas. were suave and delectable. Bu.t the best of course, once again, was Somenath 39 Hare's 'Wounds', like some bleeding plaster of paris. Th is work of no shades was this long period, much experiment (particu larly in photo-lithography and photo­ to grow still further in coming years. Wala Kishore following his individual line did, etching) seemed to have taken place. A ll this was not much in use in Indian as ever before, conspicuous and idiosyncratic work. printmaking. There applied art seemed to have graduated too fine art with .many acts of pure seeing. Stainton 's 'The Pass ing ', and of course \11ctor Passmore s were In the year following came another big American show proving that the western excellent com positions. Henry Moore's lithos spoke eloquently. The show was rich artist, no matter how conventional a material he used, no matter if he burlesqued with varied temperament and idiosyncracies. or mocked, loved scientific rationality first and foremost, as though (as said above) reflecting his cultural condition. All artists here startled us with their clinical In the following year, among the younger Indian printmakers, we had Yusuf from whiteness, glistening chrome plate framing adding to this feel. The genius of these Ba ngalore and Anju Chaud huri: the former w ith his roadside drain pipes and Anju artists inhered in this, that they pressed highly impersonal techniques to artistic busy w ith natural forms of considerable variety, visibly realistic or dream-like. uses. There were Ray Lichtenstein, James Ronsenquist and Andy Warhol, the latter w ith more conventionality in intent, if not technique. But here, too were no inward Other printmakers, too, contributed to the Indian scene in the 70's and 80's. There states as with painters of other ages, no intimacy, only formal concern. With no was the Hungarian Tibor Zala. w ith his copper-plate etch ings and poster colours . emotional argument, what of the viewing Indians after this! Meticulously did he draw upon Bela Bartok's music, and this in book designs. He also drew upon the folk styles of his country. Then there were the graphics from Then came the German printmakers with their daimonics and expressionistics. All West Berl in. Here were mere posters and, as such the artists, as mere craftsman, these artists - Diehl , W. Petrick, P. Sorge, K. Staeck - would seem to be infused could not detain t he viewer long. However, artist as dissenter did so, as in with moral convictions, struggling with State and technology, with technology's 'Winners' and 'Wall '; (by Scoenholz). His 'Figu re in A rmchair ' acted as social own means. Very different from the Americans, surely ! comment. The Cubans also put up two shows over the period of time. They were strong in photographic rea lism. pop, suggestive abstraction and naturalis_m w ide Dipak Bannerjee's symbols were among the strongest of the eleven printmakers range. The more interesting works turned nature into design. The expenmental show in a world printmakers' meet. Vaino Kola of Fin land was another notable, in diagrams of someone like Bed ia and Dura n were nu rtured more on art than on the naturalistic vei n. Japan, Yugoslavia and the Scandinavian countries naive life experience. In India, some such work has been done by Arpita Singh and participated in this venture at the Rabindra Bhavan. Nasreen. The Cubans' ticker-tapish work found its com plement in Gurcharan Singh and Vijay Sing h. The Cuba n Gallardo was as humorous as Stei nberg, w hich mood Hiroshige's show in the coming year was unrivalled in outlining common life. Neat was harder to fi nd on the Indian scene. without becoming forbidding taking in Japanese life all so subtly. The indigos really took one's breath away. The 80's National Gallery foreign lithographs consisted of the work of well known artists like Picasos Chagall , Duffy, Matisse, etc. The created worlds here enriched Lakshmi Dutt, back from Paris briefly, now stressed nature in her latest work: the the 'commonsensical ' immensely. Motto was puckish ; heavier and darker being the morphology of nature, that is, experimenting and yet us ing this strategy only as a Germans li ke Wunderlich, and Calder, Gay. means to an end. In the last few year Pa ram jeet Singh broke the Gordian knot; the spacing in his Another British exhibition (Fifty years of Printmaking) displayed a hundred works, 'Sanctuary' t he arrangement of its fields - was most zen like, t he cool colours the earl iest from 1928 and the last from 1979 - a silk screen. In between, during 40 being just right. 41 Lalu Prosad Show (among the few choser_1 good printmakers) in his latest show in household interiors complete w ith ornamentalized addenda. The velvety and 1984 testified to his skill. All his 'constructions', with their abstract planes, had enommelled feel of his pa intings also finds an echo in his prints, rendering them movement and an alert impeccability of tone. With him the whale sum and delicious. The tang of the old world is recreated by accurate transcriptions, but not substance of the print has been achieved, at least often so. overly perfected patterns. The artist knows his Ind ia by the pulse. But if his paintings do not always manage to arrive at the desired balance (tending to slight A bewildering variety was met within the All India show of prints recently: Krishan garishness) the graphics not only unfailingy draw upon the local scene but also Ahuja's work being striking and simple in outline, e.g. 'In the Rocks '; Kunal Singh 's lead to a still superior if simpler, more Spartan, sort of fare. Many of the prints litho 'Fish ' vivid; Bulo Chokravorty and Viren Tor.war mixed media compositions, have been in off white wii h some motif or illustrative idea right at the centre of Jogen Chowdhury's serigroph. Binoy Kumar Mitre's silkscreen and T. Oberoi's them . whirling lines were other notable works. Momtani's milky hued spode work shaped kinematic techniques were seen to have much movement in his film on the Jyoti Bhatt : Once again a sk illed printmaker, who learnt plenty from some years ' graphic. The work becomes animated and makes us see and live human meanings stay in the west. Perhaps a bit too much of a polished look and a studied manner, - an experiment worth following. Kanchan Malhotra's brooding woman faces or a cultivated aestheticism . Not all works seem daring . The artist uses Indian were not just a formal excercise. There was no black hu mour but an ironic intent motifs and juxtaposes them with non-lndian ones. However, all in all, the effect is behind this significant work. not of an outlandish hybrid. His metal plates have been most fetching. This flashback in time (like a flashback in dreams) is scrappy and fitful. The blanks Many have been the media of Naina Dalal - intaglio, dry-point, litho, linocut. But will have to be filled in by the lovers of prints. What, however, such recapitulation she is best with the human figure drawn on browns and rust block and other may have .brought into light is the shifting and yet steady fortunes of printmaking shades. on the lndran scene. More and more artists have been trying a hand at it. Just as cinema and :heatre, though close,are different experiences, so also are print and oil One of the latest of Somenath Hare's print show was explorative, very interesting on canvas drfferent though closel y allied. in the evolution of forms. The simplicity of the work testified to its fine mastery, a personalized art, not a sensate melodrama. Our artists. have le.arnt something from visiting foreign printmakers, quite like our modern parnters drd from European painters. Having learnt their lessons they, the And now on to the last three printmakers. Manohar Akare has mastered his litho best of them, are on t hei r own and they have evolved their own styles. Action and and etching techn iquP.s well. The patterns that the artist impresses with his plates reaction are good, they imply correcting of the always disturbed balances in artistic are firm, like a thumb print and. col lectively, these 'thumb prints' make strikingly requirements. The same is happening to the print. This will become clear as we go individual compositions. As studies in textures the works are, therefore, interesting. over and experrence the works of these many printmakers in the present exhibition. The artist has the tendency to title his compositions in a rather literary fashion - R.B. Bhaskaran, Jeram Parel, Gogi, Pa la niappan have done significant work and 'Joy in Life', 'Sex & Meditation'. 'Conflicts of Mind ', for which reason we wonder they have either absorbed the regional nuances in the body of their work or else whether they really have any reverberations of lived life. Here the mind 's they ?re abreast with the computer age. The general heterogeniety, in the look of abstractions would seem in need of being converted into vitality. the grven works shows that the tedious following of the beaten path has been eschewed. One only hopes that the public, and not only artists, will show their Jayant Parikh: eye flattering work. The genre is in keeping w ith the colour schemes appreciation of a laborious, time consuming art, one which will enrich more than of an older India. Parikh brings it ~p to date. He is able to etch whole vistas of the Indian home. 42 43 PRINTMAKING IN BENGAL · A QUICK SURVEY

Pranabranjan Ray brought into vogue a kind of descriptive illustration done in t he idiom of British academic naturalism. Although their preferred media were planographic and intaglio printing, under their impact the stylistic tendencies in indegenously evolving rel ief printing changed substantially. Society began to prize the mimetic efficiency The techniques of producing a multiplicity of identical visual objects, on a two of a Brahmin artist trained in the art school, line A nnoda Prosad Bagchi, more than dimensional surface, from a single act of visual conception, began to be employed craftmen-printmakers like Nrityalal Dutta, Madhavchandra Dos and in the growing colonial metropolis of Calcutta, from the closing quarter of the Gobindracha ndra Ray. We began to get more and more of descriptive illustrations eighteenth century. Recourse to these techn iques were necessitated by the and less and less of narrative and decorative prints. increasing need of the growing printing and pu bl ishing industry for reproduction of designs and images. More and more of the traditional metal workers and sculptors By and large, the nineteenth and early twentieth century printmaking, in the were converging on Calcutta and turning themselves into printmakers, throughout Calcutta metropolitan region, was concerned with reproduction of images and the nineteenth century, to cater to this need. designs for commercial considerations. Gaganendranath Tagore was the first modern Indian individua l artist who tried to transform printmaking from a mere Till the middle of the nineteenth century the Calcutta printmakers were solely economic activity to a cu ltural activity. In keeping with the best tradition of engaged in doing small-sized illustrations for books. Two-thirds of whatever they printmaking everywhere in the world, Gaganendranath took to printmoking to did were cameo-prints from engraved wood-blocks the other third comprised of com municate his socially sign ificant social responses to many. In 1917 intaglio prints off copper-plate engravings, drypoints, mezzotints and etchings. Gaganendranath did a sign ificant number of caricatures in lithograph. Though planographic prints from lithographic stones began to be made from the Unfortunately, however, as the Vich itra Club which provided the organizational base twenties of the last century, lithography as a medium of printmaking made its for Gaganendranath's printmaking was short lived , it could not bu ild up a movement appearance felt only in the second half of that century. With lithography came the around printmaking. Yet , it was the Vichitra of 1917-18 which created in Nandalal single sheet display prints. And once the display prints appeared on the scene Base, Mukul De and Samarend ranath Gupta an enduring interest in printmaking. printmakers began to pull posters and single-sheet prints even off engraved and out wood-blocks. The credit for developing a printmaking movement, with a conviction beh ind it, and transforming printmaking to a legitimate creative activity from a half-commercial Till the seventies of the last century traditional cra ftsmen turned-printmakers, in and half-craft activity_ for getting reproductions of designs and images, should go to their prints, by and large followed the stylistics of either the eighteenth century Visva-Bharati Kala Bhovon of the thirties and to its undisputed leader, Nandalal miniatures or the folkish paintings of eastern India. At the same time, all their Base. Nandalal enjoyed celebrating rural life and transforming its visages into endeavours were directed towards endowing volume to the motifs and three­ joyous designs of rhythmic lines on free space, disciplined only by the rules of craft. dimensionality to picture space, or in other words, towards capturing phenomenal Lino-cut and wood-cut, drypoint and lithograph offered to Nandalal both challenge likeness, as they found it in the pictures imported from the West. By the seventies and opportunity to pour out his self and carry out his artistic experiments. some of the more talented of these printmakers, especially those specialising in Nandalal 's enthusiasm for the recreation of visual experience of nature and rural wood-engraving and wood-cut, succeeded in striking syntheses and envolving life was shared by two of his technically more proficient printmaking pupils - integrated personal styles. However, that was not to be in the colonial situation. Ra mendranath Chakravorty and Manindra Bh usan Gupta. Although Ra mendranath From the late fifties of the last century, products of the newly set up art school, did relief prints and intaglio prints, he excel led in the former, especially in colour­ 44 trained as they were by British teachers, began to enter into competition. They wood-cuts. Two of his (Nandalal 's) best known pupils, Benode Behari Mukherjee 45 and Romkinkor Boi j con legitimately be called printmokers os well, not only by Th is resolve was buttressed when Somnoth, a founder member of the Society, held virtue of the number of etchings, drypoints and lithographs they mode - spanning 0 small exh ibition of the intaglio prints he was then doing in Delhi, onhe studio of considerable lengths of their active lives, but also by virtue of the high artistic the Society. Another member of the Society, A jit Chokrovorty, while returning from quality of their prints. Czechoslovakia w here he hod gone on a scholarship, brought from that country about a hundred prints by contemporary Czech and Slovok printmokers. The By the late forties, however, the printmoking activities in Sontiniketon were coming Society held on exhibition of those prints. Just after the show Arun Base, one of to on end . And not many in Calcutta, with the exception of one or two like t he most active of the founder members, left for Paris' Atelier 17 on a French Sofiuddin Ahmed and Horen Dos, were interested in the graphic media. scholarship. Another member, Dipok Bonerjee, had already gone there on a similar assignment. The Society purchased its first intagl io printing press in 1963, out of Impelled by the need to reach out to many his visual response to social situations grants provided by the La lit Ko la Akodemy and set up the earliest of the and inspired by the role played by woodcuts in Ch ina 's liberation struggle, a contemporary printmaking workshops in t he country, outside the art educational political activist of on oritst, Chittaprosad (Bhottochoryo) established himself as a institutions. Although Sa nat Kor, Shyomal Dutto Ray, Suhos Roy, Sailen Mittro and fine relief printmoker (doing mainly lino-cuts) between the mid-forties and the mid­ Anil Boron Shah tried to make the best use of the scarce facilities by making some fifties. He happened to hove been the earliest of the mentors of Somnoth Hare indifferent prints, the workshop in the absence of a trained printmoker, did not who was to emerge os the most versatile of the Indian printmokers, so for. come to life before Arun Base 's return . lt was A run Base, who, on his return from Atel ier 17, enlivened the place, trained his friends and colleagues in the intricacies Although Somnoth started making wood-engravings in the late forties , he really of print-making and enthused them so much that t he Society cou ld hold on established himself os a significant artist with his multicolour intaglio prints of the exhibition of intaglio prints, only after six months of work, at the Calcutta early sixties. Then followed his stencil prints from wood plonks and lithographs Chemoulds gallery. Then of cou rse, charti ng their individual courses Shyomol Dutto and finally the relief-intaglio combined prints on poper-pul ps from moulds and then Ray, Suhos Roy and Sanat Kor continued w ith the ma king of colour intaglio pri nts. once again intaglio prints from copper plate engravings. Somnoth Hare's life -long Sonot soon developed the method of pu lling intag lio prints off matrices mode of involvement with printmoking in different media is a long odyssey in the pursuit of engraved or cut wood-blocks. Then Lal u Prosad Show joined the group, learnt the the most expressive objectification of the ontological essence of wounded humanity, methods and techniques of intaglio printing, mainly from Sanot Kor, os also from the first experience of which he had during the man-mode Benga l famine of 1943. Shyamal Dutto Ray. By then A ru n Base hod left the country to take up teach ing Somnath played a vital role as a teacher in making printmoking popular; in assignments in the Pratt Graphic Art Centre, New York and later at the City Calcutta, Delhi and Santiniketan - wherever he worked he developed an University of New York. Amitabha Ba nerjee, one of the finest of the intaglio enthusiasm among his students for printmaking. Some of the finest printmakers of printmokers now, however, decided to defer his learning process, till the American the country to-day were taught by him at some point of time or the other. printmoker Pa ul Lingren held his first workshop in New Delhi in 1970. But once he took to it there was no going back to any other medi um and he happens to be the The credit for developing printmaking as a movement within the framework of most active printmaker in Ca lcutta to -day. contemporary art should without hesitation go to the Society of Contemporary Artists of Calcutta. The Society was formed in 1960 by some like minded painters Meanwhile, in 1968, Somnath come back to West Benga l from Delhi and took up and sculptors of Calcutta as a cooperative to take care of the professional and the responsibility of organizing the first full -fledged printmaking deportment of any vocational problems of the members. They resolved to take to printmoking as a art school in the country, at Visva -Bharati Kala Bhavo n. He gradually took away 46 way out from the break market situation in which they found themselves. Sanat Kor, Suhas Roy and Lolu Prosad Show to Sa ntiniketan from Calcutta. While 47 PRI NTMAKING IN INDIA : FOCUS ON THE WESTERN REGIO ~~ Calcutta was depopulated of active and experienced printmakers with their departure, Santiniketan once again, after a quarter of a century, has become an AS Raman active printmaking centre. While the Society of Contemporary Artists specialises only in intaglio printing, the new generation of printmakers from Santiniketan work in a variety of media. Suranjan Ba su's big-sized relief prints from wood-cut blocks In 1929 the now famous Groupe de la Jeune Gravure Contemporaine was formed and Nirmalendu Dos ' lithographs are as interesting as Pinaki Barua's and Shukla in Paris under the leadership of Pierre Guastalla with a view to creating "a friendly Sen 's intaglio prints. And there are a host of other interesting young printmakers link between engravers and engraving enthusiasts," and "to develop a taste for from Santiniketan. engraving and to publicise the art of eng raving through every possible med iu m. " Among its vigorously implemented programmes were annual exhibitions in Paris, From outside the periphery comes Tapan Ghosh who makes interesting intaglio the provinces and outside France and publications through a Book Committee set pnnts. Ghosh was trained at Atelier 17. Tapan Mitra, the only notable artist of the up in 1945 for bringing out luxury editions prepared and illustrated by the stencil media, was trained in Santiniketan before Somnath Hore had joined the members. Earl ier, in 1888, the Societe des Peintres-Graveurs Franca is was founded institution. But he mastered the serigraphy medium all by himself. by Bracquemond and Henri Guerard with the object of encouraging "original engraving, mainly through the organisation of exhibitions in France and abroad." This quick survey is neither exhaustive nor an in depth description. it merely Rodi n was one of its Presidents. highlights certain tendencies, individuals and achievements. The point I wish to make is that while, in Europe and America, there ore professional forums for artists committed to and involved in particular disci plines for projecting their works, in India none exists outside the officially sponsored Akadem ies. Printmakers in India naturally are little known compa red with pointers and sculptors. At exhibitions one seldom stops by to take even a casua l look at a drawing or an etching. One dismisses graphics as mere craft - and prints as poor man 's art because of their low prices.

Few genres in the field of visual arts are more demanding than graphics in which the emphasis is equally on skill, technique and creativity. In painting, if an artist has a sense of colour and form, he can get away w ith bad drawing. But in an etching or an aquatint one's weak drawing shows up and the artist stands stripped. Mastery over graphics implies mastery over line and the medium . In these days of specialisation technology also plays a pivotal role in the growth and development of the mechanics of printmaking. In the West a number of new gadgets are at the disposal of the printmaker who predictably resorts to these more often than not at the expense of creative self-expression. it is only in graphics that there is the danger of the servant becoming the master - of techn ique calling the tune to creativity because of the limitations that the medi um im poses on the artist's vision 48 and sens ibil ity. 49 Happily, in India, printmaking has been, over the years, developed as a discipline the true style and spirit of a creative artist. As Vlaminck, one of his favourite of the right type - of concentration on means with ends in sharp focus , the pencil modern masters, said: "One must come to terms once and for all w ith classicism. A or the drypoint serving as a mere tool for defining the contours of the artist's classical painter is not one who takes up and adapts what has been well done creative imagination on which ultimately depends the tone, texture and thrust of a once. The classical pa inter recreates the world for himself, in t he some way as the particular composition. The degree of excellence, naturally, varies from region to life is given. He does not bother about others, but about himself. The region and from generation to generation, depending on a combination of factors Prim itives created the world in which they lived, and they saw it through their own such as the quality of equipment in use, availability of specially trained staff, eyes, according to their own vision, and not from a model. The first man that I was traditions in printmaking developed over a long period, access to the works of to love was my father, and yet I never took him as a model to beget a picture- or some of the greatest exponents of the medium either in museums or through 0 chi ld. There is no model other than life; to serve is not to be a servant. " Though reproductions, exposure to the latest advances in printmaking technology, facilities as Dean Gondholekar was responsible for what was going on in all departments, for interaction between our artists and those of other countries , etc. Accuracy in he took a special interest in t he staff and students of the one concerned w ith print­ line, skill in the use of tools, expertise in the organisation of detail on, say, a metal­ making which he restructured and restyled in response to the challenges of the sheet or a block of wood and a feel ing for the inner structure and the outer texture present age of sophistication. of the material used. These are the basic elements inherent in the craft of print­ making of which, one can proudly claim, India has many bri ll iant exponents, some p Mansaram w ho now lives in Canada is a disting uished alumnus of the Sir JJ. As of them such as Krishna Reddy having already made an impact on the international a student he had an opportunity of perfecting his techn ique under the personal art scene. There are many training centres for printmakers throughout the country. guidance of Gondhalekar. Mansaram has held ma ny important exhibitions in India In fact almost every art school, however small, whether funded by a private agency and abroad. Of these one of the most prestigious was his representation at the or the government, has a special department for printmaking. British Biennial of Prints, Bradford, 1976. He also participated in the Drawing Biennial at Bronx Museum , New York, 1976. Pradumna Tana, another illustrious Western India in general and Bombay and Barodo in particular can be described as product of the Sir JJ , lives in Italy. Graduating from the Sir JJ , he joined the synonymous with printmaking at its sophisticated best. The print-making Academy of Fine Arts, Naples , on an Italian Government scholarship for department at Bombay's Sir JJ School of Art had aiways been active and specialising in painting and printmaking ( 196 1-1962). He has worked with progressive. But with the comi ng of JD Gondhalekar in the middle '50s as Dean it distinction as graphic print-designer at various elitist establishments in India and acquired a new thrust and dimension. abroad. Himmat Shah who had his early tra ining at the Si r JJ and the Faculty of Fine Arts, MS University, Baroda, received his advanced training at the Atelier 17, Paris, on a French Government scholarship. With his mastery over a wide range of With his Slcide and Central School background, he was admired in India and media, he is equally comfortable when he paints, draws, makes a print or does a England for his highly imaginative and sensitive etchings into which he infused the rel ief. Thakor Patel graduated w ith a First Class from the Sir JJ in 1958 his subjects power, precision and passion of a Durer. Drypoint and aquatint were his favourite being drawing and pa inting. His crisp and compact abstracts have a sensuous media and he handled his technique with the elegance and expertise of a quality. Manu Porekh who took his diploma in painting and drawing from the Sir Renaissance master. By temperament, taste and technique, he was conservative JJ in 1962 participated in a Graphic Workshop at Ba roda in 1973-74. Gautam and conformist. But his conservatism and conformism did not stand in the way of Voghela received his diploma in pa inting and drawing from the Sir JJ in 1960. his resolute efforts to evolve a modern idiom geared to a personal vision -modern Though stylised, his line is subtle and lyrical and best su ited for enriching his not on the surface but in spirit and substance. He came to terms w ith classicism in 50 decorative design. 51 PRI NTMAKING IN THE SOUTHERN REGION

The Faculty of Fine Arts at MS University, Borodo, has one of the best equipped Josef James printmoking departments in the country with a sophisticated and highly trained staff. The pioneer was Jyothi Bhott who virtually set up the deportment. He even designed on etching press which is still in use at many centres. With the temperament of on artistically motivated creative genius and w ith his technical Printmoking, finally, is pictu re making. The difference is in the technology. The mastery, he was a trend-setter in the sense that the prints he mode were technology does afford certain effects that are not possible with the conven tional aesthetically os significant os they were technically sound. Artists from all parts of technologies and that makes the art of printmoking of peculiar interest. The the country go to Borodo for advanced training in different pri nt media. Artists technology consists of preparing a metal plate, wood block or flat stone surface so thus trained ore now famous , i.e., Shonti Dove, Loxmo Goud, Devro j, Gourishonkor, that one con, w ith it, take multiples of the artist's proof. The printmoker's working etc. At Borodo, under the direction of such sophisticated experts os the present with his accessories and materials has given rise to quite distinctive skills and for Dean, Jerom Potel , Ghulom Sheikh and others, one receives not only training in the this reason the print has come to be valued just os a print. At an extreme, latest methods of printmoking in on atmosphere of competitive excellence but therefore, the print could get to be both the medium and t he message. The history exposure to modern art in the correct perspective through interaction w ith scholars of printmoking in this region is on account of the practice of this technology, the and senior artists. KG Subromonyon, now Professor of Pointing and Design at first attempts, the growth of interest and practice, adaptations and distinctive Kalobhovon, Viswo Bhoroti, Sontiniketon, was till recently the Dean. He served os achievements, if any. the main source of inspiration for the trainees in the deportment of printmaking. Exponents of graphics trained at Borodo ore able to import style and substance to Printmoking , initially was seen almost entirely os a device for making copies. The oleogroph is a case to the point. The Rovi Vormo lithographic press was set up in their work which is technically sl ick and artistically sensitive. They command Bombay in 1894, to enable Rovi Vorma, a po inter from the south to make cheap respect because of their suave professionalism. copies of his pa intings. The press was worked by a small staff of German technicians. This press mode Rovi Vormo's paintings extensively popular in the At Ahmedobod, under the guidance of YK Shuklo, famous for his etchings and drawings in solid academic style, a number of talented artists received tra ining in country. The Rovi Vormo oleogrophs, it is reckoned , initiated cheap co lender art in t he cou ntry. Engravings that mode up the 'company art' of the period and the printmoking at the local college where he taught after his departure from t he Sir JJ consequent on the bifurcation of the old Bombay Presidency into Gujorat and blocks used in typography ore the other instances ; but they ore difficult to dote exactly. The prints mode by these processes being copies cannot be considered Mohoroshtro. Mafot S Potel, who holds a Master's degree from the CN College of works of art in themselves. Fine Arts, Ahmedobod, is well-known for his sensitive drawings w hich hove a crisp, contemporary flavour. If the pri nt, os a means of artistic expression and appreciation is isolated from the general, functional usages of it all round, then its history in the southern region Nogpur, Pune and Nosik ore among the other centres of Western India where begi ns w ith certain attempts at it during the fifties at the Government School of facilities for training in printmoking exist to some extent. Bu t understandably they Arts and Crofts, Madras. The earliest, perhaps ore two undated prints by Devi cannot attract talented artists in the absence of adequate staff and up-to-dote Prosod Ray Choudhury, the Principal of the school. The first doted pri nt is doted equipment. 1954 and it is of a drawing by K.C.S. Pon iker, on instructor in the some institution. The plates were prepared by people in the engraving deportment of the school and the prints were pressed out with on old America n press that was lyi ng around in 52 that place. 53 This could have happened earlier because the school had an excel lent metal Award with a print titled 'The Red Fish '. He is the first artist from the Southern working and engraving department ma nned by master craftsmen : Gangadharan Region to win the National Award with a pri nt. He went on a French Government Achari, Kalyanasundaram and Sivabhushanam. Some had to suggest the scholarship to study in Paris under William Hayter and Krishna Redd y and was possibility of using the available expertise in engraving, for making plates for back on the scene in Madras in 1971 . printing, instead of makmg craftware, the possibility of making p1ctures, instead of metalware, for printmaking to start. Ray Choudhury and Paniker made that In 1968 when the first batch of printmakers passed out of t he Government College venture and t he first prints were taken. Ray Choudhury's prints were in colour and of Arts and Crafts, Madras, R.B. Bhaskaran left for Israel on a UNESCO scholarship Paniker's, an intaglio print of a line drawing. to study lithography and ceramics. He had taken his diploma in painting in 1966 and joined the College of Arts and Crafts, Madras, as an instructor in 1969. In Printmaking activity in the school multiplied after K.C.S. Pan iker took over from Ray 1973 when S. Dhanapal became the Principal, new printmaking machinery and Choudhury as principal in 1957. In 1961 , a high power commiss1on (Advisory equipment were acquired for the institution. In the same year, Bhaskaran took over Committee for the reorganisation of the School of Arts and Crafts, Madras) as the head of t he department of printmaking. But Bhaskaran 's distinctive recommended among other things that the institution start regu lar cou rses in the contribution to printmaking appeared after his stint at the Portsmouth polytechnic, graphic arts : lino-cut, woodcut, stencil, lithography, etching , engravi ng and made possible by a British Council scholarship. A remarkable series of prints and silkscreen printing. The school, upgraded into a college, started these courses from painting fol lowed after this visit abroad. In 1983 he went on to w in the National 1963. With the equipment available and under the guidance of Kalyanasundaram, Award with an etching :'Marriage Photo 11'. He was the first in the south to use the master engraver, number of students practiced printmaking. AS. Jagannathan, zinc plates for etching. Varadharajan, Akkitham Narayanan, A.P. Panneerselvam were some of them . The graphic work of these artists came to be noted. Two more artists, Munuswamy and Dakshinamoorthy also went abroad to get training in printmaking, one to Bournemouth and the other to Croydon. Of these After 1967, colograph prints were being made with a small table press at Dakshinamoorthy carried on to be noted as an important printmaker, while Cholomandal. The colograph prints made at that place by K.R. Hari, K.S. Gopal Munuswamy did not pursue the technology at all. and Jayapala Panicker came to be noted at important exhibitions between 1972 and 1978. Of these Jayapala Panicker returned to painting. The remarkable tonal Printmaking activity in the south and in the country has benefited greatly from the effects in his later painting, he owes clearly to what he had realised in his prints. visits and workshops conducted by Paul Lingren of the Smithsonian Institute, United Va r?~ ~ arajan worked on in this med ium to have his prints included in prestigious States. At his workshop at Delhi in 1970, three artists from the south participated. exh1 b1t1ons. He went on to win the national award in 1983 with a drawing of They are R.B. Bhaskaran, Arnawaz and Varadharajan. Subsequently he held two good graphic quality. workshops at the College of Arts and Crafts, Madras. Many printmakers in the south trained themselves in intaglio printmoking under his guidance at these Earlie: on, in 1964, A.P. Panneerselvam attracted attention with a print, 'Recl ining workshops. Nude . Panneerselvam took his diploma in engraving in 1965, studying under Kalyanasundaram. While he was a student, Principal Panicker turned his attention lt was difficult for those not associated with t he Government College of Arts and to printmaking. He took to it and qyickly excelled in it. He went away on a Crafts either to learn printmaking or to practice it. There was no place in the city scholarship to study under Somnath Hare at Delhi. He did well there and went on or anywhere else in the state which had the presses and other equipments. 54 to have his prints included in prestigious exhibitions and fi nally to win the National Development and spread of this technology therefore had to wait tdl the setting up 55 of the graphic workshop at Gorhi, at Delhi in the late seventies and the one at medium is superb and he has been able to express with it a remarkably origina l Madras at the Regional Centre of the Lolit Kola Akodemi in 1982. imagery. In that process he hod realised some bold, unselfconscious innovative extensions in the med ium. After passing out of the College of Arts and Crofts in Thoto Thoroni was a po inter who developed interest in graphics after he hod 1980 with a diploma in pointing, Polonioppon works os the artist inchorge of the completed his course at the Arts College in 1971 . He was completely helpless until graphic workshop of the Reg ional Centre of the Lolit Kola Akodemi, Madras. he found Ponneerselvom the noted printmoker who hod a press at his house. Under t he instruction from Ponneerselvom and practice at his press, Thoto Thoroni Printmoking activity in the neighbouring state of Kerolo hod much to do with the qualified for a French government scholarsh ip to study at Paris at Atelier 17 under Government College of Arts and Crofts, Madras. Three artists from Trivondrum, Williom Hoyter. After returning from Paris he worked at the Gorh1 workshop at Ra joppon, Sonothonon and Noroyonon Pilloi were trained in printmoking under Delhi. His more serious and accomplished work started from there. He is back in Bhoskoron at the Government College of Arts and Crofts, Madras. They now man the scene at Madras, working at the workshop at the Reg ional Centre of the a fullfledged graphic department at the Government School of Art, Trivondrum. Akodemi in the city. Thotto Thoroni 's handling of the medium con be said to be The Graphic deportment at the Trivondrum School had D.L.N. Reddy os a lecturer innovative. He is the first to make free use of textures and groins using the open in it. lt is now headed by Rajoppon and Mozumdor from Calcutta. Like in the early bind process, to impose geometrical structure by sticking acid resistant tapes on t he years at Madras , printmoking in Kerolo stays confi ned to the School of Art, plate and, to cut up the plate and printing varied combinations of t he pieces . Trivondrum.

Two of the artists from the south, V. Viswonothon and Akkithom Noroyonon, who Hyderobod produced its best printmokers in the sixties. Loxmo Goud, Devoroj and hod gone to Paris hove almost settled down there. Their graphics done abroad D.L.N. Reddy after completing their study at the Government College of Fine Arts, hove won acclaim. V. Viswonothon, while a student at the Government College of Hyderobod, moved up to the faculty of fine arts, M.S. University of Borodo for Arts and Crofts, Madras in 1967 hod executed some remarkable lino-cuts. In 1971 , higher studies. The ocq uotints of Loxmo Goud and that of Devoro j ore some of he brought out on edition of graphics working at Atelier Clot at Paris. A the most delicate rea lisations of the printmoker's croft; that of D.L.N . Reddy, of the remarkable work of his, ocquotint and etching : 'Graphics in one' was exhibited at starkness that is possi le with this medium . An unusua l printmoker is P.S. the Notional Exh ibition, 1976. Akkitham Noroyanon left for Paris 1n 1967 after Chondrosekor, also a product of the Government College of Fine Arts, Hyderobad, completing his diploma at the College of Arts and Crofts. After winning the Grand in the sixties. His imagery is eerily animistic. He prints his finely worked drawing Prix at Cannes in 1972, he was Involved in prepari ng eleven handprints to illustrate using the smooth stone surface of the litho. He is one of the few printmokers in the a choice edition of Sonkoro's classic, Soundoryolahiri. A beautiful colour engraving region w ho can excel with the litho process. P.T. Reddy, the veteran artist from of his tit led '0 -U-MA' was exhibited at the third T rien nole at Delhi in 1975. Andhro Prodesh has contributed generously to printmoking activity in that state by making available his studios for collective printmoking by the artists there. With a ful lfledged graphic deportment at the college of arts and a well equipped workshop at the Regional Centre, sustained work is now possible in this medium at Artists in Kornotoko : C. Chondrashekor, K. Chondrokont Acharyo and S. Shyomo Madras. This has helped to shape in recent years a crop of young, competent sundor received training in printmoking from Sontiniketon. At the Ken School of printmokers. They ore Po lonioppon, Bhovonishonkar, Korunomoorthy, Volson, Art, Bongolore, fu ll courses in printmoking are being offered from 1982 onwards. Vosudho and P. Mohon. Of these, Pola nioppon has mode a distinctive mark on the Principa l R.M. Haripad handles these courses. J.M.S. Moni and Dhonoloxmi ore the Notional scene when in 1985 he was awarded the President's Plaque for graphic artists associated with this institution. Printmoking equ ipment is now 56 outstanding graphic work by the AIFACS Organisation. His craftsmanship in the available in the state at the Government School of Art, Dovengere under the charge 57 of Kolidos Pothor, at the Chomorojendro School of Visual Art, Mysore, under the versatility of the design that holds it together. He had hqndled the technology to charge of Sholopurkor and lately at the Chithrokolo Porishod, Bongo lore under the realise prints of exceptional pictorial va lue. cha rge of Yusuf Arrokkol.

The graphics of Thoto Tharani and Polaniappan are non-representational and Printmoking activity in the southern region, it appears has formed itself around two abstract. But here again the abstraction does not lead the artists to the doubtful sources, one inside the region and the other outs1de of it. Printmoking in purity of acute formalism. They both are moved to find appropriate figures to make Tomilnodu and Kerol.o started out and spread from the Government College of Arts pictures of space. In this, they are in alignment with a whole tradition of modern and Crofts, Madras. That in Hyderobod, a ma jor centre of activity, appears to hove Indian artists who hove sought to revalue this important premise of pictorial been shaped out from the faculty of fine arts, M.S. University, Borodo. That perception. They both hove token risks with the medium, some of which (as that of distinction is evident in the quality of content in the work. The work of the Palanioppon) even leads to violating the professional specifications of output in th is Hyderobod artists, Loxmo Goud, Devoroj , D.L.N. Reddy and P.S. Chondroshek~r !s medium. no doubt figurative. But the figuration is in the characteristically open, naturalistic mode. Their force identifiably, is in the starkness and eroticism , both arising out of Fina lly, it would be these exceptional usages of the technology to exceptional a noturolisticolly valued sensuality. They ore greatly expressive portly because their results that would really prove the med ium and advance it in this country and expression is bodied by a realism formed out with the well worn, naturalistic vision. culture. This could lead pictures in this medium which in their authenticity and Apart from some peculiar refinement and authentication of familiar perceptio_ns , truth prove so different from what would be turned out in run -of-the-mill practice their expression do not strain technique. Soundness on that score has mode 1t allround. The technology, in other words, needs to catch up with our genius, if we unnecessary for these artists to try fresh conclusions with the technology of are to find ever, the right kind of print. The task should try both technology and printmoking. the genius it sought to be matched w ith.

The figurative work that hod appeared in Madras is of a different ~a r t. Ponneer­ selvom is a devoted printmoker who gives himself respectfully to h1s croft. As he works at a figurative expression, the workmanship absorbs him completely and to 0 detail, to the point that becomes his message coequally with the figure. That, of course, is the ideal in this medium , but a most exacting approach to progress with. Such a professionally integrated handling of the technology of printmoking could be tremendously demanding.

The strikingly figurative work in this medium is that of Bhoskoron. His grophi_cs ore not illustrations or renderings of pictures conceived independently. H1s groph1cs ore in themselves attempts at picture making. In a series of etchings in the late seventies, Bhaskoron experimented, rarifying both form and space attempting to relate them graphically. In his award-winning etching 'Marriage Photo', he flattens the space and relates elements and motifs by a strong linear pattern. The 58 validation of his figure is not in its naturalistic references, but in the strength and 59 INVITED WORKS

Akre Manahar, P. Manjit Bawa Amitabha Banerjee Naina Dalal Anupam Sud Navjat Altaf Arun Base Nirmalendu Dos Bhaskaran, R.B. Nani Barpuzari Dakshinamaarthy, C. Palaniappan, Rm . Devayani Krishna Panesar, B.R. Devraj, D. Paramjeet Singh Gagi Saroj Pal Reddy, P.T. Gauri Shan ker, P. Rini Dhumal (Dos Gupta) Harekrishna Bag Sakti Burman Jagmahan Chapra Sanat Kar Jai Krishna Agarwal Santanu Bhattacharya Jai Zharotia Shai l Chayal Jayant Parikh Shyam Sharma Jeram Pate! Sa m nath Hare Jaglekar, N.B. Subhash Chander Gupta Jyati Bhatt Subramanyan, K.G. Kanwal Krishna Suranjan Basu Kavita Nayar Sushanta Guha Krishan Ahu ja Thata Tharani Lalu Prasad Show Viren Tanwar Laxma Gaud, K. Viswanathan. V . Mahirwan Mamtani Zarina 61 JYOTI BHATT

b. 1934, Bhovnogar, Borodo. and Culture, Calcutta; Chondigorh Diploma in Painting, 1954; Post-Diploma University Museum; Hyderobod M useum ; 1956; studied Print Making in Italy, 1961 -62, Barodo Museum; Museum of Modern Arts, Pratt Institute, New York, 1964-66; Cu ltural New York; Uffizi Print Gallery, Florence ; Scholarship, Govt. of India, 1957-59; Sm ithsonion Institute, USA. Founder Member, Barodo Group of Artist; Address Founder Member, Group 1890; Founder Jyoti Bhatt Member, Camera Pictoriolists of Borodo ; 2 Adhyapak N iwas Founder Member, Graphic Co-operative Barodo-390 002 Rockefe ller Fou ndotion Travel Gro nt 1965. Gujorat At present : Reader in Pointing, Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University, Borodo. One Man shows Bombay, 1963, 67, 72 ; Ahmedobad, 1966; New Delh i, 1967, 71 ; New York, 1965, 66; Montelair, 1966; Caldwell, 1966. Participated in Exhibitio ns : National Exhibition of Art, New Delhi, 1956-59, 1963, 67, 70; Bombay Art Society, 1955-63; A ll India Kolidos Somoroh, Modhya Prodesh, 1959- 63; Graphic Biennole - Florence and Tokyo. Awards J.D. Rockefeller Ill Foundation's Award 1965- 66; 11 International Graphic Biennole, Florence, 1972; Notional Award, 1957, 63; Group 8, Chondigorh, 1969; Several awards of Bombay Art Society and All India Kolidos Somaroh, M.P. Works in permanent collection Notional Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi ; Alpha Omega, Gelatine Silver, 38 X 30 cm. 1984. Jyoti Bhatt 96 Lolit Kola Akadem i; Birlo Academy of Art 97 Production · R.B Bhoskaran Cover : S. Ravi Shankar Typography, Lay out . Rm Palamappan Typesetting and Printing Cre-A : 268 Royapettah High Road Madras 600 014 Phone : 840586 First Edition September 1985