“Printmaking is so sensuous,” asserts the master Laxma Goud. Meanwhile, helping the seniors at another table, a young artist Srinivas Tingeekar gleams: “I couldn’t have forgone the opportunity to work with printmaking. I love the paradox — it allows you to experiment, but you will still need precision to your strokes.” Such is the high that printmaking gives artists. Unfor-tunately, the medium is slowly dying. But Hyderabad, which has a great tradition of the form, is making sure that the death is stalled for as long as possible.
And one such move came from senior artist Chippa Sudhakar who hosted a printmaking camp at his Kismatpur studio last week. It gave 10 artists from the neighbouring states a rare chance to work with the masters themselves. The seniors who participated included the likes of A. Rajeswara Rao, Surya-Prakash, Fawad Tamkanat, and of course, Goud and Sudhakar. The workshop was open to art students of the city to come and experience printmaking as well.
“Once a printmaker, the artist can do anything,” says Sudhakar. That is the kind of discipline the media takes. The arduous process includes etching on a zinc plate, which is then coated with a wax and resin mix called ‘ground’. The plate is then treated with nitric acid, and then filled with ink. The ink deposits itself on the etching. One can add textures and tones by etching in varying depths and by treating it with resin powder. The actual process of printing would need a press machine. Printmaking also allows the same work to be replicated through several prints, so the media adds to the affordability factor. Sudhakar rightly puts it, “Printmaking has a lot to do with the temperament of the artist.”
However, the lack of awareness and appreciation in the market for prints now poses a great danger to the art. “People generally don’t understand what printmaking even means. They prefer to go for a canvas because they believe it’s an ‘original’ while prints are replicas. It’s due to poor knowledge about the media,” explains Fawad. Notwithstanding the demand in the market, the youngsters were excited to be part of the workshop. Vinil Rabeek from Chennai, who completed his Bachelors and Masters in textile designing, says, “This workshop has enabled me to learn a lot. The seniors were always ready to give us ideas on making plates and on varying techniques. I am hoping that these techniques will come in handy in textile designing as well.”
Hopefully, the experience of the masters and experimentation of the youngsters, and workshops like this will infuse a new lease of life to the fine art of printmaking.
