Cutting through the AI noise

German philosopher and critic Walter Benjamin in his book The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, published in 1935, argued that mechanical reproduction would devalue the aura of art. Mechanical reproduction didn’t succeed then and AI won’t succeed now. “ When everything is mediated through digital and mechanical devices, people are looking back at how prints can be produced using different materials and processes. That retro, handmade charm has become important again,” says Johny ML, senior art curator, Dhoomimal Art Gallery.

The show Print Age: A Landmark Survey of Printmaking in the Era of AI curated by Johny at Dhoomimal Art Gallery is designed within that context.

The show brings together 156 prints by 80 artists. The show spans modern masters, senior Indian printmakers and younger practitioners experimenting with the medium today. Uday Jain, director, Dhoomimal Gallery, says, “Today, collectors are beginning to understand not only the historic but also the material value of limited-edition prints by established master printmakers. There is renewed interest worldwide in print processes, and exhibitions like this feel urgent for India.”

The show features works of artists like Anupam Sud, Laxma Goud, Jyoti Bhatt, Prabhakar Kolte, Jeram Patel, Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, and Anish Kapoor to name a few. These artists represent a whole gamut of printmaking — woodcut, linocut, lithography, serigraphy, chromolithographs, etching, drypoint, aquatint, and viscosity printing.

Some require carving away material, others depend on chemical processes or drawing directly onto stone or metal plates. Artists operate heavy presses and use tools that are sharp. Printmaking is physically demanding and even hazardous. Years ago, Anupam Sud in her studio, one of the foremost printmakers in the country, showed me her bruised hands partially caused by the chemicals used in the process. Anupam was part of Group 8, a pioneering collective of printmakers formed by her teacher Jagmohan Chopra in the 1970s to enable artists to practise printmaking and promote the genre.

Johny empasises that printmaking has long been misunderstood as merely reproductive. “Printmaking has always been looked down upon as a genre because it can be reproduced but reproduction is always controlled through limited editions. If you create one work, it may be limited to 10 or 12 signed editions. Printmaking is not just about producing multiples. It is also about creating the image, creating the matrix. The human intervention and creativity are central to it.”

The exhibition includes works from important private and institutional collections in Baroda, Ahmedabad and Delhi. “The easiest way to demonstrate is woodcut or lino print. Other methods involve heavy machines. So we have arranged workshops during the exhibition. Visitors can actually try making a woodcut print,” reveals Johny.

While the medium is perceived as secondary to painting or sculpture because of its reproducibility, it is this very quality that has helped fuel its revival. Limited editions, signed and controlled by artists, have made prints more accessible to younger collectors and first-time buyers.

Senior printmaker Ananda Moy Bannerji who is part of a printmakers group, Multiple Encounters, says that printmaking is looking up in the last few years. In the show, Ananda is exhibiting a work called The Glowing Orange, a serigraph that depicts Purusha and Prakriti. In serigraph, ink is passed through a mesh screen onto paper or fabric, except for areas blocked by a stencil. Each colour is printed separately in layers.

The exhibition is on till March 15, at Dhoomimal Gallery, G 42, Outer Circle, Connaught Place, New Delhi.