Page 177 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

174 ART AND CRAFTS

profession. Modern Academic paintings were
moving at the same pace as the printed pictures
of Bat-tala at that time.
The printmaking of Bengal emerged as a true
medium of art around the early twentieth century
in the ‘Thakur Bari’ of Jorasanko. “Neo- Bengal
School art movement recognized the importance
of printmaking with a delay – in about 1916 AD;
at that time the ‘Bichitra Sabha’ of the Thakur
Bari of Jorasanko became the main center of that
movement. During this period Gaganendranath
was enthusiastically involved in drawing
caricatures on socio-political reality and it was
with the intention of circulating these pictures
among the general public that he established a
litho press in the Bichitra Sabha. This event,
however, is considerably significant in the art of
fig. 3.5 Safiuddin modern Bengal. It was centered around the Bichitra Sabha press that the artists of the
Ahmed, On the Way to Neo-Bengal School of painting tended to become interested in printmaking. It was not
the Fair, wood only that one of the collections of cartoons by Gaganendranath Adbhut Lok (1917) was
engraving, 1947 published from this press, among the other picture books that were published was the
introduction to the alphabet Chitrakhshar (1924-25) that contained pictures drawn
directly on stone slabs.” [Trans.]
11
This press of the Bichitra Sabha was later removed to Santiniketan. The Kala Bhavana
of Santiniketan also played a considerable role in the development of the art of
printmaking. Nandalal Bose joined the Kala Bhavana of Santiniketan as a teacher in
1920. Along with other art media he placed special importance on printmaking, as a
result of which a special center of printmaking also developed in Kala Bhavana. In
1922 the Indian Society of Oriental Art organized a large exhibition of the works of
the German Expressionists. Fifty-five prints found place in the exhibition. As a result
of the exhibition the misgivings that the artists had about the qualities and importance
of the medium of printmaking were removed. 12
It was in Bichitra Sabha that Mukul Dey became quite enthusiastic about printmaking.
He acquired special skills working from 1915 to 1919 in the etching and dry point
techniques (fig. 1.14). When he was employed as the Principal of the Calcutta Art
School he placed special emphasis on prints and established it on an equal footing with
other media. Later Ramendranath Chakravorty teaching in the medium of printmaking
in the Calcutta Art School was instrumental in developing many qualified artists.
Among them Safiuddin Ahmed (fig. 3.5) and Haren Das (fig. 1.15) deserve mention.
The contribution of Surendranath Kar behind establishing the printmaking studio at
Santiniketan is considerable. Later the famous printmaker Somnath Hore joined the
Graphic Art Department of Kala Bhavana.