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In1962, one art
lover named Ajit Chakraborti returned to Calcutta with a set of
etchings, engravings
, wood-cuts and linocuts by Chekoslovakian
masters. He exhibited them in his
Artistry
House, one of the well known galleries of those days. This was
pre-liberalization era and Indian had
very few opportunities to see European art first hand. The
opportunity to poor artists was even less. The
Society of Contemporary Artists
was then a
fledgling group of directionless artists who wanted to make prints which
could be sold easily and cheaply. Naturally this unique exhibition
proved helpful to them. Soon the artists joined hands to buy print
machines and set up a mini-work shop to make cheap prints.
History knows that what started then as a way of
making ends meet by making prints was to pave way for new styles of
art. Etching, Linocut, woodcut
, Intaglio are today not
just printing crafts, but are mediums of art with independent
identities.
Who knows what mediums artists like Laxma Goud would
have used if etching was not introduced in this manner, or what would
Sanat Kar
would have done , had there been no
knowledge of Woodcut, and intaglio.
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Linocut work of
Swapan Das and etching work of Laxma Goud |
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