Celebrating the journey of printmaking in India

An exhibition, titled “Of Divergent Practices: The Trajectory of Printmaking”, celebrated the art of printmaking in India. The exhibition showcased a wide array of prints which define the artform and are representative of all its stages of evolution. The exhibition was curated by Ina Puri and designed by Reha Sodhi.

In India, printmaking is an old artform, dating back to the early 1900s when Raja Ravi Verma set up a press to popularise the artform, which till then was limited to the royal families. Soon after, several printing presses came up in Kolkata, and gradually in other metropoleis like Delhi and Mumbai. 

According to curator Ina Puri, “Each artist has selected recent works— from Kavita Nayar’s fragile petals strewn on the ground to Dattrataya Apte’s impressions of textures as if created by the raking of arid and thirsty earth." The show was aimed at providing the viewers with a closer look at the trajectory of the evolution of printmaking, and popularise it.

Uday Jain, director, Dhoomimal Gallery said, “Often people see prints as a mere form of buying a reasonable work of a signature artist. What is important to realise is that printmaking is a specialised skill like painting or sculpture and is an original art form."

The participating artists in the exhibition included the likes of Anandamoy Banerji, Dattatraya Apte, Kavita Nayar, Moti Zharotia, and Sushanta Guha.