"D.LGS" ANUPAM SUD Etching (Dimensions not available)
future." Hemant Bhatnagar, SPAN art director and workshop participant, feels that the digital tools offer almost unlimited options for graphic printmakers. "The computer, with features like 'Undo' and 'working on layers,' allows artists greater freedom to create and experiment as compared to the conventional tools," Bhatnagar says. While India is struggling hard to establish itself as a major printmaking nation, its American counterparts have made many technical advances. "What the American artists have achieved from the technical standpoint, we have a long way to go to real-
The Search Within-I KAVITANAYAR Etching 50 cms X 40 cms, 2000
ly catch up with them. Indian artists have been viewed as contributing very little to printmaking techniques even though they are quite innovative and artistically expressive. In spite of several drawbacks that we have, printmaking as an art medium is making some progress, and with the introduction of these new tools, it may reinvent itself," says Sud. The year-long Multiple Encounters exhibition was first showcased at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts in Delhi last November. This traveling exhibition and the digital workshops that follow are billed as the biggest ever U.S.-India printmaking show. The organizers are planning to conduct three more workshops in Calcutta, Chennai and Mumbai this year where the exhibition will also be held. This exhibition, which showcases works of 68 American and 65 Indian artists, will travel to different cities throughout India this year including Chandigarh, Srinagar, Vadodara, Bangalore, Goa, Lucknow and Ahmedabad. Some of the other artists in the Indian contingent are Ajit Seal, K.S. Viswambara, Pramjeet Singh, Kavita Shah, Jyoti M. Bhatt, Kavita Nayar, K.R. Sibbanna and Hema Guha. The American artists include Richard Lubell, Barbara Yoshida, Frederick Mershimer, Carolyn Sheehan, Gwenn Thomas, Judith Heath and Susanna Bergtold. Multiple Encounters aims to establish an effortless rapport between the printmakers and the common man, with digital technology providing a platform where artists encounter new challenges, experiments and expressions. 0