Ahmedabad’s art lovers now have something to feel happy about. An exhibition of early
lithographs
titled Return of
Ravi Varma is now going on at
Archer Art Gallery
. The exhibition is on view till July 31. The gallery has made sure that all safety guidelines like social distancing and limited number of visitors at one particular time are being followed.
Talking about the exhibition, Manan Relia of Archer Art Gallery says, “We are really excited to be back in action now. We decided to dedicate our first exhibition post the
lockdown
to Ravi Varma, considered at the father of Modern Art in India. The physical exhibition has over 180 early lithographs from the Ravi Varma and other presses on display at the gallery.
Looking at the current situation, the gallery has decided to take this exhibition a step further by having an online gallery show which has over 480 lithographs. So, an art lover in any part of the world can also view this show.
Ravi Varma who was a prominent Indian painter of the late 19th century, imported two steam powered lithographic press from Germany and started the “Ravi Varma Lithographic Press” in 1892 in Bombay. He was the first Indian painter to introduce mass production of his paintings using a printing press based on the print making technique of Lithography / Oleography (a process of reproduction where the stone block was coloured with oil paints instead of printing ink).
Not only was he a successful painter for the connoisseurs but also made sure that every possible Indian home could have an artwork just the way the patrons and aristocrats did. Thus, lithographs were successfully being printed in different sizes, which people from all walks of life could afford.