At Water Edge

Whereas Chittaprosad and Somnath Hore were printmakers who were political in nature—their art documented the death and devastation of the common people in riots and famines—Haren Das was content showing the idyllic side of rural India, particularly Bengal. His work is equally vital, successfully documenting rural India that would have gone largely unnoticed, particularly in the genre of printmaking. At Water Edge is proof of how carefully the artist details the two village women engaged in mundane conversation, their garments, ornaments; the spiky grass on which they sit; the aquatic plants…