An attempt to bring back to life the art of prints and drawings

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Printmaking is one art form that needs great skill, patience and competence. Be it carving a block of wood from which prints are made or making designs or pictures on a metal plate, glass etc. by the corrosive action of acid; from producing a picture or writing on a flat, specially prepared stone to the process of reproducing a multi-coloured painting or design, printmaking is one medium that truly deserves recognition.
And when renowned printmakers get together to experiment even within this complex medium, the show has to be special.
In a unique initiative to promote printmaking as an art form, Art Perspective has organised a group show titled Lasting Impressions. This exhibition brings under one-roof printmakers from all over the country, who add drawings on their limited edition prints.
The participating artists include Dattatraya Apte, K. Laxma Goud, R.B. Bhaskaran, Kavita Nayyar, Jayanti Rabadia, Shail Choyal, Ravikumar Kashi, Manu Parekh, Madhavi Parekh, Sidharth, Rini Dhumal, K.R. Subbanna and Hanuman Kambli.
One can witness several varieties of original prints like lithograph, woodcut, engraving, intaglio, etching and serigraph, each with its own characteristics. While the basic print remains the same for the number of prints in each limited edition, it’s the drawing that’s done on each of them that makes the collection an interesting one.
“We wanted to add an exciting element to the whole experience of printmaking. And what better way than blending the two beautiful mediums of printmaking and drawing? It adds a new flavour to each work and also shows how the same image can be elaborated in various forms,” says Suruchi Saraf, director, Art Perspective.
For printmaker Apte, the garden of Garhi has become a part of his daily life. The animal and inanimate figures in his work — crows, squirrels, leaves, flowers, stone pathway, twigs, chair, earthen bowl with water, curtain and glass pane — all play their role in building the narrative. “Creating black and white print and adding drawings on them was a great experience. Print etched in soft ground technique gives a pencil drawing like effect. The image is static and provides a stage for the drawn images in watercolour and colour pencil to play different characters. Each print enhanced with drawings creates a different setting for the visual narrative,” he says.
Rabadia’s works are usually based on sayings or kahavatein, emphasising their strength through different forms of animals and birds along with human figures, speaking of their heroic achievements, and are usually associated with Indian mythology.
An episode from the Bhagavat Puran, where Krishna plays the flute and the resonance mesmerises cows to return home, is the basis of Choyal’s work. “The imagery of the cow has been my most favourite motif for the past one decade and I have loved to paint, etch and sculpt the cow in its various moods. My use of landscape through pencil drawings around the flute player is neither religious nor historical but sensuous and otherworldly. The drama in the episode here may look absurd and ironic, but I aim to balance it out with the nostalgia I confront in everyday life,” he says.
While Manu Parekh uses flower to symbolise faith, Madhavi Parekh’s work reflects her association with Christ. “I spent my childhood in a small village called Sanjaya in Gujarat where we used to celebrate all festivals. I enjoyed Christmas a lot as a close friend of mine was a Christian. The image of Christ has always been as important to me as that of Goddess Durga or Kali. As an artist, visiting Jerusalem was reliving my childhood memories and before I realised, Christ became a part of my work,” she recalls.
For Subbanna printmaking gives a fresh lease to his pent-up feelings. “I began to assimilate my early influences ranging from the sculptural art of the Hoysala and Chalukyan temples and the paintings of Ajanta and Ellora. These varied sources amalgamated into my worldview. My flair for handling fantasised images, showing their integration with nature, is a direct outcome of the memories of my childhood getting transformed into adulthood, acquiring their shape from within the precincts of a salubrious atmosphere and luxuriant forests around my village. This is why my prints, whether lithographs or etchings, show a grand co-mingling of the human and animal form with nature at their most intricate level, he explains.
The idea of drawing on limited edition prints was a challenging one for Bhaskaran. “It took me more time to do the drawing than the printing itself. But I enjoyed this experiment. As it was free-hand drawing, I could allow my imagination to flow,” he says.
The show, which will conclude on March 8, is open for viewers from 11 am to 7 pm at the gallery in Lado Sarai, New Delhi.