Bhubaneswar: An art exhibition on printmaking was hosted by the Printmaking department of Utkal University of Culture at Orissa Modern Art Gallery here Monday. At least 18 artists presented 42 printmaking arts on varied themes at the expo.
According to Orissa Modern Art Gallery Founder Tarakanta Parida, the focus of the exhibition was to motivate artists to produce more printmaking arts than traditionally painting on canvas which is more difficult. In printmaking, use of colour is secondary and sometimes only a layer and a few shades of colour is used. The printmaker draws an image onto a printing medium such as a stone or a metal plate or board. The work is then coated with ink, covered with a transferring base – such as paper or fabric – and then printed with a roller press or a hand press.
Station scene through Printmaking
The resultant print is often identical to the image first put onto the medium. The art print is an original work and in the same way a canvas or watercolour art is also original work. But the difference is that the print usually has a very small edition of the same image whereas the canvas or watercolour is one-of-a-kind. In the exhibition, the mediums of printmaking such as Woodcut, etching and Lithography were exhibited. In woodcut art which is an ancient form of printing process, the impression was first made by inking a picture that has been cut on a flat surface of wood and pressing it on paper.
In the Etching process, the art is taken from a metal plate on which a picture has been made by letting acid bite into the lines of a drawing. The lines are filled with ink and the image is created by the recessed areas, as pressure from a printing press forces the ink onto the paper. In etching, very little colour is used.
Tarakanta showcased his art which is based on the theme of immortality. He explained that human beings have dreams which crave for immortality which he has seen distinctly. “In childhood I had various dreams which I tried to showcase through printmaking,” he added. Monalisa Biswal, another artist and a guest faculty of UUC, exhibited the concept of family tree through etching process.
Brain with time
Smruti Ranjan Sutar, first year student of UUC, had exhibited three arts that showcased the machine dependency by humans. In another art titled Helping Evolution, he expressed that humanity nowdays has been using machines to help human beings.
An art titled exhibits the controlling of brain and its network with the help of time. He said people nowadays do not think through their brains but through time. The exhibition was inaugurated by Kamal Kant Misra, vice-chancellor of UUC in the presence of eminent artist Banabihari Parida. The expo will conclude April 19.