Female figures, frail birds, and shy, curious tortoises are recurring motifs in the works of Ajit Seal. Known for the velvety softness of his lithographic prints, the respected Santiniketan educator keeps a low profile in India's more commercially orientated art environments, though his works are quietly handled by a number of galleries in India and abroad.
I was fortunate enough to meet Mr. Seal in the graphics department at Santiniketan this past December. There he gave me a tour of the various rooms that constitute the printmaking workshops, taking special care to explain the lithographic processes for which Santiniketan in famous for teaching. Ajit Seal himself was once a student of the revered printmaker Somnath Hore, and he speaks of his past mentor with a fondness reserved for sad-sweet memories.
Anyone who has followed this blog will realize I have a marked preference for woodcuts, drypoints and etchings. For some reason lithographs have never quite held the same appeal to me, and I think one reason for this is the "flatness" or lack of texture that seems to accompany the process. To my mind the lithographic stone seldom conveys the same warmth that a carved wood block or even an etched plate is capable of conveying. Yet, I find myself being drawn to the surface of Seal's lithographs in a way that few other works in the medium can achieve. Ajit Seal's lithographs are silky and soft, with an inviting warmth that I cannot explain.
The bare hint of interior architecture in the print above is enough to suggest this young woman has emerged from a childhood tale of castles and sorcery. The confusion of wings just behind her allows us to speculate that she herself is a kind of bird-woman, a fusion of the human and the magical. Is she rescuing the three birds she reaches out too? Or finding in them kindred spirits?
Light and shade is used in this lithograph to masterfully evoke mood and enigma. The artist offers us a scene from a fairy tale, and allows us to construct the narrative.
To view a short interview with Ajit Seal, please visit the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpS_Gyxhl4s
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