In fine print

Manpriya Singh

Unusual themes are ironically usual in the art world. However, the same can’t be said of mediums, some of which are not just unusual but at the same time underexplored. Which is why the artists at the exhibition titled, Celebrating India Bangladesh Printmaking, first get into the labourious process of getting the drawing transferred onto the paper, canvas, from wood, stone before anything else. An endeavour by Chandigarh Lalit Kala Akademi in association with Alliance Francaise and The Art Route, the exhibition puts together the works of as many as 26 artists, with 12 artists each from Bangladesh and India and two local artists from the place where the works are being showcased.

Delhi-based artist Moti Zharotia has been only creating works in the medium of silk screen print for the past 40 years. “In this we first draw on a tracing paper, after which the drawing is transferred using photo exposure to a fine silk screen called mash cloth. Then a stencil is obtained which is then printed,” says the artist, who finds getting the tonal variation and gradation in the colours a challenge of the medium.

As he further introduces two of his colourful works from a series that he describes as, “Multiple encounter series in which one image of the cat has been used,” One can see different silhouettes of the same cat in different colours.

Moving on, artist Ananda Moy Bnaerji’s River Sutra —II was kept as a unique work and not taken any more than one print of. “That’s not the case with all of my works though,” says the artist, who says he likes to work in literally all of the mediums. But printmaking using woodcut has its own charm due to the laborious process involved, says the artist as he introduces the two human silhouettes made on each side of black lines that symbolise the flow of Narmada river.

Artist Sushanta Guha has been working in the medium of lithography for the past three years, despite the challenges like having to manually pull the stone in getting the final print and if it’s a bigger canvas like 1.5 to 2 feet, then there’s the challenge of creating a single layout from four different parts (read paper) coming together to form one picture. The exhibition wasn’t intended to be a travelling one but it has become one, after coming to Chandigarh from New Delhi. “The next stop would be Jaipur, and the reason for exhibiting works in just print making is because it’s a relatively rare medium. It’s well known in the art world but not to general public or even art lovers,” says Lubna Sen, the co-curator and founder of The Art Route, New Delhi, India. Print making of India and Bangladesh is intimately linked to each other through shared history and aesthetics.

“Print is like the original and first ever Xerox machine known to mankind,” she adds while explaining the foot note, invariably making it to each of the works wherein the original number of copies produces of each print are mentioned. “If it’s a 2 X 10, then that means all of 10 prints of that work have been produced.”

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On view till March 4 at Alliance Francaise—36

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