Koustav Nag: two untitled etchings

Koustav Nag tells me that these two prints in my collection were made during a time when he was heavily under the influence of the rural culture and surroundings of Santiniketan in West Bengal. Coming from the congested urban milieu of Kolkata, Nag, like may other artists before him, discovered a peaceful and idyllic world in the academic world of the Tagore-founded university and its village surroundings.

"Dreamlike" seems to be the appropriate word to use when describing these prints, a term differentiated from "surreal" perhaps only by a manner of degree. In spite of distorted perspective, a winged apparition, and the unreality of naked people apparently in public view, these images never quite cross the line into the more bizarre imaginings that we associate with branded Surrealism. With night skies and elongated cats on rooftops they are more akin to the softer visions of Chagall, and like Chagall the dream unfolds in the environment of conjured villages mingled with hints of folklore. There is a whisper of Khakhar-like narrative in these prints, but it is left open for us to construct the storyline.


For me the acquisition of these two prints...both stunningly beautiful as sheer physical objects and examples of talented printmaking...posed a bit of a dilemma. As much as I was drawn to them, I was also aware that Koustav had already moved away from printmaking and was now applying his energies to watercolours. His art was becoming more conceptual and had begun to engage with the world in a multiplicity of media.

In looking at graphics by young printmakers I find myself questioning their commitment to the medium. If they seem to drop their interest in the printed image as soon as they have left the university (a fact that often happens for the simple reason that they no longer have easy access to tools and machines), I can become loath to take their print works seriously...even if they are beautifully made or thematically interesting.

But it is a hard call. One of the first prints I ever collected was a wonderful etching and aquatint by the British artist Henry Moore. Moore was of course a passionately devoted sculptor, and even though his printmaking output was large and masterful, it is easily understandable that printmaking was not the medium in which he made his greatest contributions. This does not negate however the fact that he created masterful prints, nor that some of the imagery in his printed works is as compelling as his sculpture (indeed, the images in Moore's prints are often two-dimensional meditations upon his three-dimensional ideas).

With a young artist like Koustav Nag I see a talented and inquiring mind that will no doubt explore a variety of media in the course of his career. Of course there is a hope in me that he will one day return to printmaking and its rich possibilities. He has already demonstrated an amazing capacity to express himself with the medium. But as all young artists must do, Nag will explore, experiment, and ever progress down an aesthetic path of his own choice. Perhaps one day we will look at these early etchings and realize that they were harbingers of things to come.