Tsuktiben Jamir
A hundred years after Guttenberg’s Bible was printed for the first time, printing arrived in India in 1556 as a colonial import. It was initially used as a medium for evangelistic goals and afterwards for advancing commercial and political objectives, shaping a new purpose. However, printing was only employed to replicate and reproduce at this point.
Eventually, ‘printing’ evolved into ‘printmaking’ as the demand for printed illustrations increased. It is essential to understand that the terms ‘printing’ and ‘printmaking’ are often used synonymously. However, there is quite a discernible difference between the two. As Australian-based BlueThumb points out, “Printmaking is a process of hand making and pressing using inks, whereas prints are simply reproductions of an original painting or photograph.”
In Calcutta (now Kolkata), there was a booming printing and publishing business by the middle of the 18th century. Broadsheets rather than illustrations first appeared during this period due to the arrival of European artist-explorers on the Indian coastlines. A vernacular print culture that appeared in both text and image emerged as a result of the progressive penetration of technology into the community of native artisans throughout time. Over time, The Battala reliefs in Calcutta and the Punjab lithographs from Amritsar and Lahore sprung up during the 19th and early 20th centuries. They were vigorous schools of bazaar printing that flourished in the subcontinent during the time.
By the 1850s, India saw an entourage of art schools that blossomed in Calcutta, Bombay (now Mumbai), Madras (now China) and Jaypore (now Jaipur). These educational institutions provided training in printmaking as a form of industrial art, cultivating a local workforce to operate British printing presses in India.
Even though printing making had a rich artistic history in Europe dating back to the Baroque era, this was a time when being creative was heavily discouraged in India. However, the instruction given in these art schools had an unintended side effect. It encouraged the students to create their own planographic printmaking-focused art studios that catered to the Indian market. This resulted in the developing of a vast collection of popular pictures known as the “Art Studio Pictures,” which propelled artists like Ravi Verma to fame and high demand.
In 1917, a significant milestone occurred in artistic printmaking. Gaganendranath Tagore published a lithographic cartoon album called “Adbhut Lok” at the Bichitra Club, an avant-garde salon in the Tagore residence in Calcutta. This event represented a significant breakthrough as it transformed the perception of printmaking from solely a means of reproduction to a medium for artistic exploration.
Courtesy: Pundole’s.
Profound explorations in the field of art commenced with the appointment of Nandalal Bose, a young prodigy of Rabindranath and Abanindranath Tagore, as the inaugural Principal of Kala Bhavana in Santiniketan during the years 1920-21. While Nandalal Bose’s prints retained a subjective realism and representational quality, their two-dimensional design exhibited elements of abstraction. As Nandalal matured as an artist, he began creating notable reliefs such as “Bapuji,” as well as lithographs depicting domestic animals and impoverished individuals. In addition to his artistic printmaking, Nandalal recognized the medium’s potential for mass communication. In the 1930s, both Nandalal Bose and Ramkinkar Baij produced political posters for the Non-cooperation Movement using cement blocks as their printing method.
This was followed by the emergence of Chittaprosad Bhattacharya, who Nandalal heavily influenced. Chittaprosad drew inspiration from the two-dimensional design and sharp contrast of light and shadow found in Nandalal’s reliefs and incorporated elements reminiscent of Nandalal’s exploration of folk and classical art traditions. Furthermore, Chittaprosad’s later works reflected Nandalal’s focus on human suffering, indicating a shared preoccupation between the two artists.
Krishna Reddy is renowned as one of the pioneering figures in Indian printmaking. Reddy saw an unbreakable link between life, nature, and art. Indian printmakers were drawn to Reddy not just for his technical prowess but also for his abstract images and philosophy. In stark contrast to the narrative style that dominated Indian art in the 1950s and 1960s, it offered a fresh challenge and way of approaching aesthetic comprehension. The prints in this show’s “Abstraction” section serve as excellent examples of how the spirit of music, which is sometimes regarded as the most abstract of all art genres, echoes through Reddy’s works.
Thus, we observe the development of printing from merely a production technique to creative expression, a political instrument, and finally, a voice of philosophy, the fundamental foundation of human life. Such was the journey of Indian printmaking through history.
