Print Biennale India awardees honoured at the grand ceremony
The award ceremony of the First Print Biennale India 2018 (PBI), organized by Lalit Kala Akademi, recently took place in the lawns of Rabindra Bhawan. Dr Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State (I/c) for Culture, Government of India, couldn’t attend the function personally. However, he sent his message which was read out by Dr Paula Sengupta – “I am so glad to know that the Akademi is preserving and encouraging such fine art of printmaking through this grand event. I appreciate all the beautiful prints on display and the outstanding effort of the Academy that contributes and makes us aware of the contemporary trends in art. I also extend my compliments to the Lalit Kala Akademi for supporting and encouraging contemporary artists through this biennale, creating a unique legacy for the future. I congratulate all the winners”
The Chief Guest of the programme Sujata Prasad, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Culture, stated, “I must appreciate the tremendous job done by the jury members. Prints exhibited at the biennial are joyous, quirky, protest prints, surreal and realistic. The entire display is quite versatile and interesting. I congratulate award winners and other participants.”
Addressing the ceremony, M L Srivastava, Protem Chairman of the LKA, said, “The First Print Biennale India is a major step forward, taken by the LKA, in making the lesser known genre of visual arts popular. The event has elicited higher interest globally in artists as well as art lovers.”
It was followed by the launch of first PBI catalog and the medallion by the Chief Guest Sujata Prasad. She further honoured the awardees of the Biennale India with two lac rupees as prize money along with the medallion and certificate.
Arup Kumar Kuity (Andhra Pradesh), Satya Narayana Gavara (Andhra Pradesh), Preya Bhagat (Uttar Pradesh), Purvi Parmar (Gujrat) and Sonal Varshneya (Uttar Pradesh) are given the award in the first PBI. Apart from the five awardees, 8 printmakers have been chosen for the Honourable Mention by the PBI jury panel.
The occasion also witnessed mesmerising performance by Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt (Padma Bhushan), Kathak performance by Manisha Gulyani, and the release of the Print Biennale India 2018 catalogue by Chief Guest Anupam Sud, Commissioner of the first PBI, along with its steering committee members Ananda Moy Banerji, Dattatraya Apte, R.S. Sham Sunder, Dr. Paula Sengupta and Vijay Bagodi.
In the morning, a lecture series was inaugurated by M L Srivastava, Chairman, LKA at the Sahitya Akademi Auditorium as a part of the event. Kavita Shah, Jayati Mukherjee, Lina Vincent Sunish, Arpan Mukherjee and Dr Paula Sengupta were the speakers who elaborated on the historical significance and contemporary scope of print in the field of art. Amit Mukhopadhyay delivered a curatorial talk on ‘Atelier Populaire’.
The first tier jury consisting of eminent artists sharply examined the 1126 entries received from 415 artists across the globe – 364 Indian and 51 International printmakers – and unanimously chose 177 exhibits. The second tier jury constituted of distinguished artists Waswo X. Waswo (US), Laxma Goud (India) and Shirish V. Mitbawkar (India), who selected five awardees and eight Honourable Mentions out of 153 printmakers.