Mahatma Gandhi's Dandi march captured in a stamp by modernist painter Nandalal Bose figures among a rare display of indigenous graphic prints that are up for display at the National Gallery of Modern Art here.
Bose's stamp, a linocut on paper is exhibited among 315 iconic pieces by artists like S H Raza, Akbar Padamsee, M F Husain, Zarina Hashmi and others culled from NGMA's repository of 17,000 works on indigenous print making.
Union Culture and Tourism minister Shripad Naik opened the "Celebrating Indigenous Printmaking -- a special exhibition of Graphic Prints," here late last evening.
"These art pieces which are being exhibited testify a rich and resplendent past even as they pay tribute to the present. With its accent on acquisition of paintings, sculptures, graphics, photographs and other forms of visual arts, the NGMA has collated a superior repository of critical importance," Naik said.
Among the display is S H Raza's "Bangladesh" a graphic on paper. Akbar Padamsee's street corner is an etching on paper, M F Husain's lithopgraph on paper, Zarina Hashmi's "City II" is woodcut print on Japanese Paper.
"We are showcasing over 200 iconic prints of more than 100 eminent artists mapping the history of printmaking from the colonial period till contemporary times. A special section has been dedicated to international prints from our own collection which was made in India by the respective artists," Rajeev Lochan, Director, NGMA said.
In 1556 the age of printmaking dawned in India when the Portuguese brought the printing press to Goa. Noted artists such as Thomas Daniell and William Daniell made six volume series of aquatints titled "Oriental Scenery in India.
