A library of cultures, languages, and ideologies—long serving as a crucible for artistic innovation and exchange. The exhibition Inked Legacies, Linking Geographies, curated by Diksha Nath, offers a glowing glimpse into one such enduring crusade – the connection between the Faculty of Fine Arts, Vadodara, and the fertile artistic landscapes of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Through the curation of works spanning decades, it heralds the alchemy of tradition and modernity embodied through the medium of printmaking. Tracing stylistic genealogies and thematic resonances, Inked Legacies sketches the symbiotic flow of artists’ ideas and inspirations across regions. The works on display are milestones in an ever-unfolding story.
A pioneer of creative dialogue
Established in 1950, the Faculty of Fine Arts at Maharaja Sayajirao University, Vadodara, quickly rose as a center of excellence. With its avant-garde training in printmaking techniques like intaglio, lithography and serigraphy, it became a lodestar for talent across India. After the 1960s, artists from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana flocked to this bastion of creativity, establishing an indelible link between the eastern and western regions.
“Baroda fueled my imagination,” says T. It is one of the dynamos of the system, says Venkanna. “It was a revelation—a world where ideological rigor met the freedom to dream limitlessly. I returned home not only as an artist but as a storyteller armed with a new visual language.
Dynasty of Baroda
The show highlights the influence of faculty stalwarts like KG Subramanian, Jyoti Bhatt, Ghulam Mohammad Shaikh and Rini Dhumal. These trailblazers imbued their protégés with a distinctive aesthetic—the consistency of narrative depth, global art history, and inertia in tradition. P. From pioneers like Gauri Shankar and Lakshma Goud to contemporary torchbearers like Chippa Sudhakar, Soghra Khorasani and Jagadish Tammineni, the works of these mentors resonate across generations.
Echoing the textures and rhythms of rural life, Sudhakar Chippa adds, “I learned to translate the vibrancy of my village soil into universal visual poetry. It is a bridge between the local and the cosmic.”
Printmaking precision
Central to Inked Legacies itself is printmaking—a form that combines technical mastery with narrative depth. For Bhaskar Chari, the medium is an act of transcendence. “It is not just an image but a palimpsest of personal memory and collective history, etched into permanence.”
A renaissance in the heart
Many artists who honed their craft in Baroda returned to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, bringing with them the ethos of the Baroda School. Through teaching and practice, they nurtured a generation of artists who redefined the boundaries of Indian art, sowing the seeds of a renaissance in the region. Venkanna says, “We wanted to connect our art to the ever-evolving energy of our heritage. We wanted to remind ourselves that our journeys are intertwined, that our stories are inseparable.
(The show runs till February 9 at Srishti Art Gallery, Jubilee Hills.)