Welcome to the second edition of artetc. news & views. Your enthusiasm in receiving the remodelled and new look of the magazine has been most emboldening to say the least. We are grateful dear reader, to be so well-received in the very first experiment we did just about a year after art news & views was born.

After the successful run of the last three issues dealing with Antiquities and Art Treasures, in this issue and the next, we are going to focus on Prints and Printmaking.

Prints and Printmaking, let us be very clear, has till recently been looked upon as a lesser art form. However, of late, people have started taking notice of prints, not only as a form that combines creativity with technique, but also as a viable investment option. The market for prints is on the rise all over the world. India is no exception.

There are several reasons to this. One, good quality signature prints that are folioed and numbered, limited editions especially, cost a lot less than original paintings but in no way are lesser in terms of artistic brilliance and rarity. Secondly, many artists are now seriously looking at printmaking as a primary mode of expression, thus ensuring the inflow of original manual art-prints into the market. Thirdly, with technology, a lot of artists are also taking recourse to prints as a secondary mode. These prints, those of paintings that is, are, with time almost equalling their original counterparts.

In short, this is a time to 'know your prints' and that is exactly what we aim to introduce you to in this and the next issue. In the following pages you will get to know all about 19th Century Prints, Printmaking in South India, Garhi Prints, the way Raja Ravi Varma's art influenced printmaking in India. You will also come to know about the prints of Mukul Dey and the way Group 8, the Delhi-based organization of artists and printmakers, works.

We thank our contributors Nanak Ganguly, Satyajit Ukil, Johny ML, Uma Prakash, Soumik Nandy Majumdar, and Dr Padigar, and last but never the least Waswo X Waswo, the print connoisseur and art-blogger who is the Guest Editor for this issue.

We hope you will enjoy knowing about a very niche subject and appreciate our efforts in leaving no stone unturned to give you a full gamut of reading experience dealing exclusively with Printmakers and Prints.

Do write back to us, as we are always keen to know of your reactions to each of our efforts. After all, it is you, dear reader, who keeps us going as always.

Happy Reading