For the Love of Printmaking

Print making has been the choice of medium for many artists, providing the challenge of carving out images on hard material such as wood or stone, adding colour to create the desired effect on paper. Wakilur Rahman, who was once a student of the painting Department at Dhaka University, is one of the names that keeps coming up when prints are discussed. The precision and sophistication of his work has earned him accolades at home and abroad.
Trained in China Wakil lives in Berlin—but wishes to share his thoughts and imagination with people in his country as well as internationally. In Bonn in 1988, he realised that he wanted to have more activity. It was not enough or easy to have exhibits in Berlin city alone. At that time, says Wakil, the graphic biennale and triennale were very popular. He could roll up his work and send it to other countries.
“In printing you can make as many copies as you like" says Wakil. "One copy I can send to Bangladesh, another to Poland etc. I began graphics as it was something different from what I had already learnt. Secondly, I could distribute the copies at my will. At first I went to the Berlin Art School (Hauchshuler—high school or college). They saw my certificates from Bangladesh and China and said: 'You have nothing new to study'.
That's when he went in for graphics. In China he had seen the tradition of using graphics—even for political propaganda. The Chinese have their traditional water-colour woodcut print. For books and calendar, they use this system informs Wakil.
“In Germany, when I began, I started with lithography. This has a stone on which I work, and then I transfer the drawing into the paper. One has to use a lithography pen, there is Arabic gum then there is the reaction with lithographic ink. Then you wash the drawing. When it is wet you put colour. When this is transferred to the paper, one can make many prints.”
“There is also the wood cut – which I proceeded to work on next. Plywood has a flat, easy-to-cut-into surface. You chip away and use colour. Then one gets what one can call “Losing Form”: What you add comes in the print. Alography is a form of lithography, which uses an aluminium plate. This is an offset technique which is done manually. Then I went into etching and aquatint. For seven years I experimented with different materials. Prints with flat surfaces, depth print, prints with different colours. I tried to learn – and produced a lot of graphics.
“In Alliance Francaise in 2007, I had an exhibition which drew crowds – with ink on Chinese paper. I had two more exhibitions at the Dhaka Art Gallery after the ones at Bengal Lounge (Gulshan) and Bengal Gallery( Dhanmondi). I try to sell. And in that manner I finance the whole project.”
Talking about his paintings, which are now on display for a month and a half, he says that these are sketches from his imagination.
The texture is like the contents of a human brain. It is abstract – and not quite organised for the view of the common art viewer. Two plates have been used. One is red and the other, black. This is what is called “Soft varnimo”. The name of the next work is “Shadow on water”. It is the expression of some shadow over a pond – in his village. The combination of green and black presents another abstraction. In 1994, he did a series of work with three forms. He used triangle, circle and square forms. Compared with the circle and square, the triangle is a dynamic form. In the cultural context, it has different meanings, says Wakil. In Indian and Chinese philosophy fire is symbolised with the triangle. The circle is said to stand for water and wind, the square is the soil. Thus, says the prince of print makers, there are the three geometrical forms to stand for the different elements of the world.
One of the prints is a triangle in yellow ochre. He took the basic triangle; next he filled it with lines and colours. Normally one paints on a square or rectangular surface. Normal room walls are of that shape says Wakil. The triangle is filled with colour and form and tries to capture the atmosphere around the artist. One makes out an artistic melange of leaves of trees in yet another creation. This is connected with Nature—as are almost all the artist's works.
Wakil often experiments with the format—the kind of surface he has to work with. There are flowers and greenery in yet another creation. His figures have open hands—ready to embrace. There are a series of works in woodprint. “Source” is a very sexual image, says the artist. The figure is red and blue. It is also connected with Lingam worship in Hinduism.
The whole series has a square for a format. There are some Bengali alphabets and some symbols. Yellow-ochre and back, blue with squares again bring in eroticism—as the artist puts it. Many dots are put there representing a language. One notices that each dot is different from the next one. The aquamarine ovals have a creation with images. The ovals stand for similar languages. Scratches and crosses in the net print stand for tension, and this is a woodcut. Through the different colours and lines different moods and temperaments are created, says the artist.

Print making has been the choice of medium for many artists, providing the challenge of carving out images on hard material such as wood or stone, adding colour to create the desired effect on paper. Wakilur Rahman, who was once a student of the painting Department at Dhaka University, is one of the names that keeps coming up when prints are discussed. The precision and sophistication of his work has earned him accolades at home and abroad.
Trained in China Wakil lives in Berlin—but wishes to share his thoughts and imagination with people in his country as well as internationally. In Bonn in 1988, he realised that he wanted to have more activity. It was not enough or easy to have exhibits in Berlin city alone. At that time, says Wakil, the graphic biennale and triennale were very popular. He could roll up his work and send it to other countries.
“In printing you can make as many copies as you like" says Wakil. "One copy I can send to Bangladesh, another to Poland etc. I began graphics as it was something different from what I had already learnt. Secondly, I could distribute the copies at my will. At first I went to the Berlin Art School (Hauchshuler—high school or college). They saw my certificates from Bangladesh and China and said: 'You have nothing new to study'.
That's when he went in for graphics. In China he had seen the tradition of using graphics—even for political propaganda. The Chinese have their traditional water-colour woodcut print. For books and calendar, they use this system informs Wakil.
“In Germany, when I began, I started with lithography. This has a stone on which I work, and then I transfer the drawing into the paper. One has to use a lithography pen, there is Arabic gum then there is the reaction with lithographic ink. Then you wash the drawing. When it is wet you put colour. When this is transferred to the paper, one can make many prints.”
“There is also the wood cut – which I proceeded to work on next. Plywood has a flat, easy-to-cut-into surface. You chip away and use colour. Then one gets what one can call “Losing Form”: What you add comes in the print. Alography is a form of lithography, which uses an aluminium plate. This is an offset technique which is done manually. Then I went into etching and aquatint. For seven years I experimented with different materials. Prints with flat surfaces, depth print, prints with different colours. I tried to learn – and produced a lot of graphics.
“In Alliance Francaise in 2007, I had an exhibition which drew crowds – with ink on Chinese paper. I had two more exhibitions at the Dhaka Art Gallery after the ones at Bengal Lounge (Gulshan) and Bengal Gallery( Dhanmondi). I try to sell. And in that manner I finance the whole project.”
Talking about his paintings, which are now on display for a month and a half, he says that these are sketches from his imagination.
The texture is like the contents of a human brain. It is abstract – and not quite organised for the view of the common art viewer. Two plates have been used. One is red and the other, black. This is what is called “Soft varnimo”. The name of the next work is “Shadow on water”. It is the expression of some shadow over a pond – in his village. The combination of green and black presents another abstraction. In 1994, he did a series of work with three forms. He used triangle, circle and square forms. Compared with the circle and square, the triangle is a dynamic form. In the cultural context, it has different meanings, says Wakil. In Indian and Chinese philosophy fire is symbolised with the triangle. The circle is said to stand for water and wind, the square is the soil. Thus, says the prince of print makers, there are the three geometrical forms to stand for the different elements of the world.
One of the prints is a triangle in yellow ochre. He took the basic triangle; next he filled it with lines and colours. Normally one paints on a square or rectangular surface. Normal room walls are of that shape says Wakil. The triangle is filled with colour and form and tries to capture the atmosphere around the artist. One makes out an artistic melange of leaves of trees in yet another creation. This is connected with Nature—as are almost all the artist's works.
Wakil often experiments with the format—the kind of surface he has to work with. There are flowers and greenery in yet another creation. His figures have open hands—ready to embrace. There are a series of works in woodprint. “Source” is a very sexual image, says the artist. The figure is red and blue. It is also connected with Lingam worship in Hinduism.
The whole series has a square for a format. There are some Bengali alphabets and some symbols. Yellow-ochre and back, blue with squares again bring in eroticism—as the artist puts it. Many dots are put there representing a language. One notices that each dot is different from the next one. The aquamarine ovals have a creation with images. The ovals stand for similar languages. Scratches and crosses in the net print stand for tension, and this is a woodcut. Through the different colours and lines different moods and temperaments are created, says the artist.