Printmaking - PIB
Prints are works of art which allow multiples in almost
identical forms of the initial image. The history of printmaking in
India from 1556 may be outlined as an era for this form of art gaining
prominence with the Portuguese bringing in the printing press to Goa. If seen in
the international context, this form of art started making its mark in India
almost a century after Gutenberg’s Bible. Noted artists such as Thomas Daniell
(1749-1840) and William Daniell (1769-1837) made six volume series of aquatints
titled as Oriental Scenery in India. In 1786, the Daniells
published an album of their monochrome etchings, Twelve Views of
Calcutta. This was the first time that the possibilities of single sheet
printing were explored on a large scale in India. The first lithographic single
sheet print was printed in 1822 by a French artist, De Savignac.
The demand for printed images for calendars, books and
other publications grew in the 1870s which resulted in the increased popularity
of single sheet display prints. Eventually, several art studios and printmaking
presses flourished throughout India. Bat-tala,
in the Shova Bazaar and Chitpur areas of Kolkata may be viewed as
prominent centers for printmaking in the 19th century. Munshi Newal Kishore
founded the first press in Lucknow called Newal Kishore Press and Book
Depot in 1858. It is recognised as one of the oldest printing and publishing
establishments in Asia where the newspapers and books were often printed with
stone blocks. Apart from these, the other major centers were set up in
Ghatkopar, Mumbai with Raja Ravi Varma, establishing a lithographic press
towards the end of the 19th century. The Ravi Varma Press gained
prominence with him copying many of his religious and secular paintings and
printing them as oleographs for mass consumption.
During the second decade of the 20th century,
a transformation of the role of printing as a creative medium was established by
Abanindranath Tagore, Gaganendranath Tagore and Samarendranath Tagore. They
collectively formulated the Bichitra Club to explore new forms of
painting and printmaking with woodcuts and lithography. Another prominent
student of this club was Mukul Chandra Dey, who was taken to America by
Rabindranath Tagore in 1916 to learn the technique of etching from James
Blinding Slone.
Printmaking became popular in India during 1921 with
Nandalal Bose introducing it to Kala Bhavan in Santiniketan. From his visit to
China and Japan in 1924, he brought back Chinese rubbings and Japanese colour
woodcut prints. Owing to this, the students of Kala Bhavana thus established a
direct contact with original prints of the Far East. Benodebehari Mukherjee and
Ramkinkar Baij experimented with this medium from the 1930s to 1940.
Chittaprosad and Somnath Hore used linocuts and woodcuts to disseminate leftist
ideologies, reformist concerns and socio-political critique of events like the
Bengal Famine of 1943 and the Tebhaga movement.
Somnath Hore joined Santiniketan as the head of the
department of graphic arts in the year 1969. With experimentation of diverse
forms in this medium, the department became further enriched in the later years
with the expertise of Sanat Kar, Lalu Prasad Shaw, Pulak Dutta, Nirmalendu Das,
Ajit Seal, and Salil Sahani. Similarly in Delhi, Jagmohan Chopra (founder of the
Group 8), J Swaminathan, Anupam Sud, Paramjeet Singh, Manjit Bawa and Krishan
Ahuja also made sizeable contributions to this field. With the establishment of
printing press by Kanwal Krishna and Devyani Krishna in 1955, a renewed energy
was instilled in Delhi, outlining techniques of multi-coloured intaglio and
collagraphy. Several young printmakers visited Paris to learn the technique of
multi-coloured intaglio under the guidance of William Hayter (founder of the
Atelier 17) and Krishna Reddy in early 1950.
K.G. Subramanyan effortlessly incorporated lithography,
etching and serigraphy in his art practice. He transformed them into children’s
book illustrations which were published during his stint as a teacher at the
Maharaja Sayajirao University in Baroda. Other prominent artists like N B
Joglekar, Jyoti Bhatt, Jeram Patel, Shanti Dave, V R Patel, and P D Dhumal also
made their important contributions in this field. After studying in Italy and at
the Pratt Graphic Centre in New York, Jyoti Bhatt joined the art faculty in
Baroda in the 1960s, encouraging young printmakers to experiment in this area of
visual expression.
From 1970 onwards, iconic printmakers such as Laxma
Goud, Devraj Dakoji and D L N Reddy in Hyderabad, R M Palaniappan and R B
Bhaskaran in Chennai and Chittaprosad Bhattacharya, Atin Basak and Amitava
Banerjee in Kolkata have made a significant mark in this area. The techniques of
intaglio influenced painters and sculptors in Baroda during this time including
Dattatray Apte, Naina Dalal, Jayant Parikh, Vijay Bagodi, Walter D’souza and
Rini Dhumal to name a few.
The works created by Robert Rauschenberg in Ahmedabad
and the comprehensive collection of prints at NGMA, New Delhi reflect the
diverse practices adopted by the printmakers all over the world, rendering it as
one of the richest repositories of prints. Printmaking was rekindled with the
establishment of the Indian Printmakers Guild in the 1990s with members
including Ananda Moy Banerji, Dattatraya Apte, Jayant Gajera, K.R. Subbanna,
Bula Bhattacharya, Kavita Nayar, Kanchan Chander, Moti Zharotia, Sushanta Guha,
Sukhvinder Singh, Subba Ghosh, and Shukla Sawant.
The introduction of digital technology and mechanised
softwares led to a significant transformation in the field of printmaking. In
its experimental form, interesting visual vocabulary created by Jyoti Bhatt,
Nataraj Sharma, Ravi Kashi, Gulammohammed Sheikh, Ranbir Kaleka, Baiju
Parthan, Pushpamala N., Akbar Padamsee, Rameshwar Broota and Gogi Saroj Pal, to
name a few
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