The New Horizon of Planography Practice in Bangladesh: History, Alternative Materials and Institutional Constraints in Plate Lithography

Author (s)

Shafin Imtiaj Shihab, Palash Baran Biswas, & Asma Chowdhury

Abstract

Lithography or planography was a commercial printing process and then became an art medium that was introduced into the Indian subcontinent. Although it has a long tradition in the printmaking community of Bangladesh, starting from Mohammad Kibria and Murtaja Baseer to the present day, it is still a small-scale activity amongst printmakers. The paper reviews the historic scenario, current situation and experimental potential of planographic practice in Bangladesh. It poses three questions: how lithography arrived in and flourished in the Bangladeshi art institutions, if cheap and available materials can broaden the expressive spectrum of Aluminium-plate lithography, and the reasons why students are not using lithography in art. Studying is a qualitative and practice-based study. It contains a critique of Bengali- and English-language literature, semi-structured interviews with six practicing lithographers, field visits at five fine arts institutions along with a brief questionnaire to thirteen Master of Fine Arts (MFA) students from Khulna University. Its core is a series of experiments undertaken in the studios around grained, and offset-exposed, aluminium plates. The materials tested were gum arabic resist drawing, offset positive remover gel, and ALU NET plate cleaner as well as nail polish remover, a gum arabic -phosphoric acid etch, carbon paper transfer, lipstick, oil pastel, combined tusche and glass marker and press ink thinned with Berger Robbialac Thinner T-6. Every material produced a printable image. A basic gum arabic and phosphoric acid solution (8.5 mL H₃PO₄ in 250 mL gum solution) was used as an inexpensive alternative to the traditional TAPEM etch. The questionnaire revealed that 53.8% of students of MFA do not practice lithography because they do not see many chances to continue their practice after graduation, and 84.6% of them consider lithography to be the most dangerous medium of printmaking. The findings from the perspective of diffusion-of-innovations and postcolonial art-education reveal that limitations of the medium in Bangladesh are not expressive but institutional and economic.

Key words: Lithography, Planography, Plate lithography, Printmaking, Alternative materials, Bangladesh, Practice-led research, Art education, Diffusion of innovations.

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Cite This Article:

Shihab, S. I., Biswas, P. B., & Chowdhury, A.  (2026). The New Horizon of Planography Practice in Bangladesh: History, Alternative Materials and Institutional Constraints in Plate Lithography, Journal of Scientific Reports, 15, 327-346. https://doi.org/10.58970/JSR.1253

About Author (s)

Shafin Imtiaj Shihab, MFA in Printmaking Discipline, Khulna University, Khulna, Bangladesh.

Palash Baran Biswas, Associate Professor, Printmaking Discipline, Khulna University, Khulna, Bangladesh.

Asma Chowdhury (Corresponding author), Assistant Professor, Printmaking Discipline, Khulna University, Khulna, Bangladesh. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9771-2789

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.58970/JSR.1253

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