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[[image]]a woodcut sample [[/image]] The Hindustan Times Zarina's etchings and woodcuts at Kunika-Chemould Art Centre are delightful. Each of the compositions is clean, uncluttered, sophisticated and individual. Only some of the woodworks are repetitious but because of their simplicity -- not tiring. In her etchings Zarina employs rich hues, and it is in the play of these that she excels. The balance she maintains between mossy greens and subtle warm colors is always refreshing. The flight series in excellent. The design of its composition, too, is strong, effective. And this point comes out at its best in the plain black-white series where the whirling grooves provide a forceful sense of movement. The Hindustan Times Zarina's woodcut exhibition By Our Art Critic At the Kunika-Chemould Gallery where an exhibition of woodcuts and etchings by Zarina is on view there is one subtle print which recalls a verse from Omar Khayam: "There was a door through which I might not see." Zarina calls it simply and in a straight forward way "Structure II." A brown door made up of six non-symmetrical panels and supported by two posts stands before the spectator in all its stark physical reality. But this is more than a physical confrontation for it is no ordinary door. Is has the fragile life of a moth and is actually like a sensuous screen. The convincing substance of its variegated woodgrain design and its unassuming uprightness only proves that an honest artist -- who understands her material and technique -- can name art out of the simplest ingredients. SUGGESTIVE LINE The suggestive line of shadow on the right is an indication of a presence and we are in wonder before this articulate image. Truly this is Japanese in its lyric beauty. This is the highest score in Zarina's exhibition. I am afraid the other woodcut prints are of lower order. Some, for examples, "Wheel of Life" or "L'Homme Seul I," are passive vehicles of the woodgrain impression. A few have a kind of chance familiarity with life, and figures. None of these possess the quality of unselfconscious organisation we experience in "Structure Two." We come to articulate and evocative organisation again in the best of the intaglio prints. "Flight III" allows us an exciting bird's-eye view of a sweeping landscape. The four prints "Man", "L'Homme Seul II", "Bird" and "Flight" carry variations of the same image family. In these the structure has been simplified and reduced to its essentials. Consequently we have something like intaglio sketches for sculpture. The Statesman, 4 December Art Gifted Graphic Artist By Our Art Critic There is a distinct stamp of technical competence and serious intent in almost every graphic by Zarina who is showing an impressive selection of woodcuts and etchings at the Kunika-Chemould Gallery. She has a very fine colour sensibility which is particularly manifest on a soft, delicate scale, for example. the attractive blue and mauve etching (composition No. 4) with a very articulate interlaced pattern on the even more subtle composition "101". She achieves a significant sense of movement in "Flight I" and "Flight III". The mood is lyrical in these graphics and in another highly suggestive and meaningful woodcut. "Forest". But where Zarina's gift shines forth is in a series of remarkably competent and expressive woodcuts. "Black and Brown, "Riders" and "Structure II". the most outstanding of which is the last mentioned. an ever so refined and sensitive image of a panelled door. a kind of screen. in brown where every line and scratch comes to life. Zarina's accomplished technique and gift for linear rhythm is again evident in three more works. cat. Nos. 17 13 and 11. On view till December 9. daily between 10-30 a.m. and 7-30 p.m.
