The print making
idiom , route
and milieu of
Ajit Seal

Dr.Meghali Goswami

“I believe that art is a creative bridge between our imaginative vision, which tends to recreate the primal human condition, and our current artistic sensibility, which responds to the existential
paradoxes ingrained in the human psyche”
– Ajit Seal
Some are born to establish an institution and some are born to enhance the institution. Ajit Seal, a personality who needs no introduction in the field of printmaking, is one of the latter. Born in Assam in 1958, Ajit has been fervent towards Visual Art since childhood. It was not that he was getting direct access to the Visual Art world by seeing the great masters’ works or getting exposure toward the art world through the references of secondary materials during his childhood days, but, he was attracted towards this medium because of the atmosphere that sorrounded him. He recalls that as a child he used to pass by a furniture shop everyday and his curiousity led him to learn the process of wood-carving from the carpenter of that shop. That is when he decided that he would undergo a formal academic training in Fine Arts. Consequently, he was awarded with a Diploma in Painting from Guwahati College of Art and Craft. In 1981, under the guidance of Bhabesh Sanyal, he completed a two-year training in Graphics at Garhi Studio, New Delhi. Thereafter, in 1983 Ajit seal was awarded a Post Diploma in Graphics from Kala Bhavana, Visva Bharati Santiniketan; his journey as an artist, thus, began. It would be wrong to categorize Ajit Seal only as an artist because his contribution in grooming and training Visual Arts students as a mentor is to be accredited. Due to the request of the artist Sobha Brahma to establish the Graphics Department at Guwahati Government College of Arts and Crafts, he declined a National Scholarship and joined the faculty of the College. The first lithography machine and etching machine was set up in Guwahati Government College of Arts and Crafts under his supervision in 1985.