GRAPHIC PRINTS

JYOTI BHATT
Jyotindra Manshankar Bhatt (born 1934), better known as Jyoti Bhatt, is an Indian artist best known for
his modernist work in painting, printmaking and also his photographic documentation of rural Indian
culture. He studied painting under N.S. Bendre and K.G. Subramanyan at the Faculty of Fine Arts,
Maharaja Sayajirao University (M.S.U.), Baroda. Later he studied fresco and mural painting at
Banasthali Vidyapith in Rajasthan. Throughout Bhatt's long career as a teacher at M.S.U., he has
photographed the evolution of the university, the artistic activities of its faculty and students, and the
important buildings of Baroda.
His etchings, intaglios, and screen prints have explored the language of symbols from Indian culture;
the peacock, the parrot, the lotus, stylized Indian gods and goddesses, and tribal and village designs.
Recently he has explored digital printing and holography. Jyoti has documented traditional Indian craft and
design work including bandhani, traditionally tattooed bodies, havelis, painted temples, embroidery and
other Kutch crafts. The motifs he used in his printmaking are largely influenced by this documentation.
Jyoti Bhatt is one of the noted printmakers in India.He was born in Bhavnagar, Gujrat in 1934. And did his
post graduation in fine arts from M.S.University,Baroda.Along with painting he is successful and noted
graphic print maker.His etching are not merely coloured textural surfaces but have a deep underlying
meaning.
Works: Devi, Laughing monk heads, Woman with horse

GRAPHIC PRINT 1

TITLE- DEVI
ARTIST- JYOTI BHATT PERIOD- 1965-75
MEDIUM-ETCHING
SUBJECT MATTER
Through this etching print Jyoti bhatt beautifully represents the concept of our ancient scripture of female
fertility and power worshipped as Devi or Shakti in Tantric cult.This power lies as Kundalini which every
human is supposed to process.It is believed that Kundalini rests at the lowest end of the spine, coiled like a
female serpent.With the help of yoga and mantras one can make this power rise. Through the spine to the
brain where the male power of shiva resides.
COMPOSITIONAL ARRANGEMENT-
Jyoti bhatt beautifully depicted this concept through his etching. In this etching work the form of Kundalini
encircles the female fertility power in the lower section of the print and male power in the heart of Devi
which provides an overall frame to the entire composition.Deep etching in black provides an interesting
texture to the serpentine form. At the each side of Devi head are decorative pendants.The forehead of Devi
is decorated with a brilliant vermilion bindi.The Devi has wide open eyes typical of Durga image.
HUMAN LIFE VALUES-
1.Importance of spiritual awakening
2.Union with divine as ultimate aim

ANUPAM SUD

Anupam Sud is one of the finest printmakers of the modern age . She was born in Hoshiarpur, Punjab in
1944 and obtained the diploma in Fine art from College of Art, New Delhi .Her effort her creative skill is
used to reveal the tragic existence of the individual and his problems for survival.
Anupam Sud (born 1944) studied at the College of Art, Delhi, during the same decade, Somnath Hore was
revitalizing the college's printmaking department. Sud's etchings are made with the use of zinc plates, a
difficult medium that requires both patience and precision. Anupam's work has evolved from the
architectural forms, limbs and human figures in the mid 1970s to largely feminist subjects in the late 1970s.
Anupam found inspiration in both male and female sexuality and identities. Her works don't express a direct
opinion on social issues. She uses symbolism and metaphor in her depictions of interrelations between the
genders. Her figures are often self-absorbed, moody and brooding. One of Sud's best known bodies of work,
the "Dialogue Series", expresses human communication between people of both sexes through a mood of
mature and silent acceptance. The "Dialogue Series" emphasizes human togetherness as intimate and
non-verbal.

Sud was one of the founder members and the youngest member of GROUP 8 (formed by Jagmohan
Chopra in 1968). Anupam, with her printmaker colleagues, worked to promote and sustain printmaking as
an independent expressive art form

Works: "Dialogue Series", Of Walls

GRAPHIC PRINT 2
TITLE- OF WALLS
ARTIST –ANUPAM SUD
MEDIUM- ETCHING ON PAPER LITHOGRAPH
PERIOD- 1982
SUBJECT MATTER-

Anupam, an outstanding graphist has adopted printmaking not only for artistic and emotional expression but
also for making sharp social comments. This print is a mixture of photographic images. In this horizontal
composition of graphic print the artist has depicted one lady sitting on a step against the wall and In the
foreground a man's legs are shown as if he is sleeping.

COMPOSITIONAL ARRANGEMENT-
Child like drawing are made on the wall in the white colour in the background .The artist has simplified the
background and foreground, committing all necessary details. The figures are strongly in modelled forms,
yet have soft colours. The black face of the lady indicates that she has become non-entity.Dramatic use of
light and shade is shown.
HUMAN LIFE VALUES-
1.Need for social equality

SOMNATH HORE

Somnath Hore (1921-2006) was a Bengali sculptor and printmaker. His sketches, sculptures and prints
were a reaction to major historical crisis and events of 20th century Bengal, such as the Bengal Famine of
1943, the Tebhaga movement (the 1946 peasant unrest in Bengal), communal riots and the Partition. He
became a printmaker when this stream did not have many seekers in India because of unavailability of
machines and other apparatus outside the colleges. He taught in Delhi College of Art and made efforts to
promote print-making.
Somnath lived most of his later life at Santiniketan, where he taught at Kala Bhavan. There he became a
close associate of the painter K.G. Subramanyan and the sculptor Ramkinkar Baij. Hore learnt the methods
and nuances of printmaking, mainly lithography and intaglio. His drawings, especially his human figures,
became simplified by shedding details. Through this reduction he achieved his individual style of misshapen
and suffering figures created with a masterly use of line. In the 1970s Somnath did his greatest work, the
Wounds Series of paper pulp prints where he achieved a unique abstraction without sacrificing his
long-practiced humanism.
He was a recipient of the Indian Civilian Honour of the Padma

Bhushan. Works: Children, Wound series

GRAPHIC PRINT 3

TITLE- CHILDREN

ARTIST-SOMNATH HORE
PERIOD-1955-1970
MEDIUM-ETCHING AND AQUATINT
SUBJECT MATTER

There are two poor weak children whose bloated stomach and thin triangular ribcage and large heads are
shown.Their mother who is standing behind them has put her protective hand of their shoulders.In the
foreground a semi clad child is standing wearing a string around his neck .One more female figure is shown
standing from the back at the right hand side of the composition .The human forms are divided in geometric
planes.Suitable tones of blue grey are used for the theme of undernourished children who represent the
existence of poor in the society.

HUMAN LIFE VALUES

Care for poor and destitute
Children must be taken care so that they can see and bring a better future
Need for economic quality in society so that the basic needs of food,clothing and shelter are met.
 K. LAXMA GOUD ,1940
K.laxma Goud was born in 1940 in Nizampur,Andhra Pradesh.He received the diploma in drawing and
Painting from Govt. College of Art and Architecture,Hyderabad in 1963 and did his post diploma in mural
painting and printmaking from M.S.University,Baroda under N.S.Bendre.

GRAPHIC PRINT 4
TITLE-MAN,WOMAN AND TREE
ARTIST-K. LAKMA GOUD
MEDIUM -LITHOGRAPH
SCHOOL-MODERN
COURTESY-NATIONAL GALLERY OF MODERN ART
Rural South Indian Man–Woman This is an etching print on paper made by Laxma Goud (1940) in 2017.

Laxma Goud, a fine draftsman and printmaker, studied mural painting and printmaking at M. S. University,

Baroda, and was influenced by his teacher K. G. Subramanyan’s experiments with the narrative mode and

figuration of visual traditions, classical, folk and popular cultures. He tries to erase sharp demarcations

between major and minor arts, thus, giving it linguistic breath. This has helped him straddle various mediums,

such as glass painting, terracotta and bronze. In this etching, men– women are shown with trees in the

background. It is based on his childhood memories immersed in nature. Illustration of a rural idyll is

characterised through the prototypes of peasant man and woman. The realist ingredient present in the highly

and ornately contoured shape brings in an element of actual appearance of villagers but is steered towards a

gentle stylisation, which imposes on figures a touch of puppets. This print is line-based and coloured. Some of

his other artworks are Woman, Man, Landscape of Turkey, Untitled, Xiyan China, etc