Multiplying Importance

I was struck by a line in the concept note that Art Etc..news & views. emailed while I was on holiday in Bangkok: "It is high time to stop defending printmaking as a valid art form and simply begin to recognize its enormous potential."

I couldn't agree more.

Arguments about whether or not printmaking is a craft or an art, a purely technical skill or a passionate form of expression, are today moot. Printmaking, just as photography, has long been accepted as a legitimate practice within the fine arts, and there are simply those who are cognoscente of this fact and those who are not.

Art Etc. has taken on the commendable task of publishing not just one but two back-to-back issues devoted to printmaking. In Part I we have sought to focus on historical printmakers. In Part II we will focus on printmaking practices in the present. As the collective title of these two issues implies, printmaking in India is taking on multiplying importance. We hope that the articles printed herein capture not only some of the history, but also the excitement of the printed medium.

Printmaking is dear to my heart. I not only collect it, I used to work with the medium for long hours and many years in my youth. It is my greatest hope that these two issues, Multiplying Importance: Indian Printmaking Then / Indian Printmaking Now, will not only impart a little more knowledge, but also help spread a true and passionate love for a medium too often not given its due.