A gift for Sakti Burman fans

NEW DELHI - It is art for the masses with an exclusive tag. Veteran Paris-based contemporary artist Sakti Burman has touched base with young art lovers in the country with 24 limited edition signed copies of his works.

The serigraphs — life like coloured prints of his most complex and expensive canvases — are a \”gift to his fans on his 75th birthday\”.

The cache, \”The Complete Collection\”, was thrown open to buyers at the Sreedharani Gallery at the Triveni Kala Sangam here late Tuesday.

\”The collection flaunts some of Burman\’s signature metaphysical works like \’Legends of Hope\’, \’Sadhu Singing\’, \’Shiva Parvati\’, \’Happy as a Bird\’ and \’Ganapathy Offering Flowers\’. It is a gift to his fans on his 75th birthday,\” Sharan Apparao, owner of the Chennai-based Apparao Gallery, who presented the collection in the capital, told IANS.

The artist turned 75 on Feb 8.

Apparao said the \”idea behind the show was to explore a new medium and to make high-end art affordable\”.

\”Reproductions of Burman\’s works, which originally cost Rs.36 lakh, are on sale for just Rs.45,000,\” Apparao said.

The sale price per portfolio of the collection, which includes all the 24 serigraphs, is Rs.900,000, while per piece costs Rs.30,000 and Rs.45,000.

According to Apparao, \”all the 24 serigraphs are in a limited edition of 125 prints with \’certificate of authentication\’ listing the details of the works and \’certificate of assurance\’ from the artist confirming that no other signed prints of the same images will be made.

\”Each serigraph is numbered, titled and signed by the artist so that it becomes an individual piece,\” Apparao said. The gallerist collaborated with the Dubai-based Serigraph Studio for the collection.

The serigraphic fine art print, says contemporary art printmaker Lavesh Jagasia, owner of the Serigraph Studio in Dubai, \”are produced using the screen method\”.

\”The coloured inks are applied layer by layer in plates just like the artist applies his ink to get the exact oil and water colour finish. Serigraphs, like many other digital fine art prints, have become state-of-the art,\” Jagasia told IANS.

The word serigraph, Jagasia said, literally means to draw on silk.

\”Seri in Latin means silk and graphics in Greek is to draw. It was coined by Carl Zigrossen, an eminent curator of prints of the Philadelphia Museum of Fine Arts to distinguish fine art screen prints from the commercial industrial prints. It dates back to ancient China and to 14th century Europe,\” he said.

The printer has reproduced serigraphic fine art prints of works by artists like S.H. Raza, Ram Kumar, Jahangir Sabavala, Paritosh Sen, Rameshwar Broota, K.G. Subramanyan and Lalu Prasad Shaw.

Serigraph is the best bet for collectors in times of recession, artist Sakti Burman said. \”They are affordable for young audiences. The medium works well for artists like me who do not paint in large numbers. I cannot fulfil the demands of all the art lovers and art collectors,\” Burman told IANS.

Leading artist Sanjay Bhattacharya says \”fine art prints have become technically very sound\”.

\”In 2007, a New Zealand-based printer reproduced a lithographic print of my water colour and ink drawing in an album of art prints. He even managed to capture the random spread of the ink on water and paper in print. The fine art prints now have a photographic quality,\” Bhattacharya told IANS.

\”They have a fascinating quality almost like \’original reproduction\’. Fine art prints are difficult to distinguish from the original at times,\” artist Paresh Maity told IANS.

Defining what qualifies as fine art prints, Jagasia said: \”There are various types of fine art prints, also known as \’multiple originals\’, like serigraphs, lithographs, linocuts, woodcuts and several kinds of intaglio (incised) prints like etchings, engravings, dry point prints, aquatints and mezzotints. But the bottom line is they have to be produced in limited numbers to be as exclusive as the original,\” he said. \”But with a wider and easy