How odious is he — with bloated body, stub-like face, rippling chins, beady eyes and crocodile grin. The unscrupulous purohit (priest), whose real god is Tonka (money) Devi, looms over tiny worshippers who are indistinguishable in blind faith.

This century-old lithograph print, titled ‘Purification by Muddy Water’, was one of the 13 created by Gaganendranath Tagore for his 1917 portfolio Virupa Vajra . In the preface to this low-priced booklet he wrote, “When deformities grow unchecked but are cherished by blind habit, it becomes the duty of the artist to show that they are ugly and vulgar and therefore abnormal.”

In another frame, ‘Purification by Cow-dung’, a purohit is seen devoutly scooping up dung as the cow looks on with a wise sneer. In ‘Imperishable Sacredness of a Brahmin’ the monster purohit returns as a glutton stuffing himself as the Vedas and the Upanishads are thrown out of the window. Other targets of GT’s (as he signed) acrid humour are hypocrites, the corrupt ‘Noble Men’ who hoard money as others starve, the lecherous who objectify women and the babu class that dons Western clothes in the hope that they are mistaken for sahibs.

Looking back can be a lesson in not just how much or how little our world has changed but also to rediscover the spirit or passions that drove the past generations. Graphic Prints, the ongoing show at Kolkata’s Galerie 88, has the works of not just Gaganendranath (1867-1938) but also Mukul Chandra Dey (1895–1989), Ramkinkar Baij (1906-80), and Rani Chanda (1912-97). These artists, deeply conscious of their milieu, were committed to creating art that would inspire a love for India and a better social order. They also shared the legacy of the Bichitra Club.

In India, printmaking as a medium of fine art began (like many other things) in the Tagore household in north Kolkata. Bichitra Club, named by Rabindranath, grew under his nephews Gagnendranath, Samarendranath and Abanindranath into a platform for ideas and explorations. Gaganendranath, the eldest of the three, set up a lithography studio. He even published satirical booklets such as Nava Hullor , Virupa Vajra and Reform Screams . Gaganendranath, who designed his uncle’s trademark robe and cap apart from costumes, jewellery and sets for his plays, was also known for portraits and abstract, cubist-like style of paintings. It is interesting how he builds up the drama in each frame with a collage of visual clues sprinkled with a line or two of script. The few colours are orchestrated to maximum effect. Prabasi , a Bengali magazine founded in 1901, remarked that the fact that the cartoons were successful was clear in the way they enraged people.

Dey, also a member of Bichitra, travelled across the US and England to master the techniques of drypoint etching and engraving before returning to Santiniketan in the 1920s. There are two of Dey’s drypoint etchings on view at Galerie 88. The varying tints, smudged and keen lines of ‘Filling the Pitchers’ and ‘Festive Season’ make them seem hand-painted. In the first, two women stoically try to collect water from a hole in the riverbed in a landscape that is bare except for a few distant lines of palm trees and huts. ‘Festive Season’ captures the rhythm of folk music and dance — three men with drums and a flute, their bodies swaying to the beats of the lagra .

It was Nandalal Bose, a pupil of Abanindranath and creator of the Bichitra Club logo, who popularised printmaking in Visva Bharati University’s Kala Bhavana (Institute of Fine Arts). Baij, who studied there to be a sculptor and painter, also dabbled in printmaking. Four small monochromatic woodcuts at Graphic Printsbear theruggedness and power characteristic of Baij’s works. In one, the Vande Mataram chant is expressed with a partially visible face with tear-shaped shadows and a foreground of jagged broken shapes. In another piece inscribed with Mahatma Gandhi’s Quit India slogan ‘Do or Die’ and the date 1942, a lean figure seems to shriek defiantly in the face of upraised sticks.

In 1932, Dey published a portfolio of 25 linocut prints by his sister Rani (Chanda by marriage). Daughter of Kula Chandra Dey, a dear friend of Rabindranath, Chanda trained in music, dance and arts at Visva Bharati. While her proficiency in music and dance made her a near-fixture in Rabindranath’s dance drama recitals, her fame as an artist followed much later. Her prints at Galerie 88 are beautifully balanced black-and-white compositions of rural life. Confident lines blend with a keen eye for chiaroscuro to show huts awash in moonlight, a tree reeling over with white blossoms, tribal women in the shade of trees, a woman peering from a window almost hidden by foliage. Moments of magic so finely crafted that one doesn’t feel the need of colour.

(Graphic Printsis on display at Kolkata’s Galerie 88 till June 30)

Sebanti Sarkar is a freelance writer based in Kolkata

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW