India, Sept. 5 -- Between 1950 and 1980, as Delhi transformed from being the capital city of a newly independent nation to the country's power centre with a cosmopolitan outlook, printmaking came into its own. Somnath Hore and Jagmohan Chopra wanted to establish the artform: the latter creating a studio in his Delhi house in the 1960s, which functioned alongside the studio in the prestigious College of Art, allowing artists to work after hours. This led to the formation of Group 8, a collective of artists devoted to printmaking, who went on to hold exhibitions across the country.

"It was a time when many artists all over the country were coming to Delhi, being commissioned by people, and so on. Printmaking was also a new artform, and the...