• Society

Printmaking: a Timeless Art Form Reflecting Uniqueness and Diversity 

• By Teng Yalirozy
• April 11, 2024 2:10 PM

PHNOM PENH — “Art is timeless and a journey to diversity and exploration.” This strong belief led to a one-month exhibition currently held in Phnom Penh entitled “Timeless,” showcasing nearly 70 works by students from the Royal University of Fine Arts and established Cambodian and Mexican artists. 

Exhibited at Plantation Urban Resort and Spa, they have been produced through the technique of printmaking that has rarely been seen in Cambodia in recent decades. 

Printmaking, which was used in the country in the 1950s and 1960s, virtually disappeared during the Khmer Rouge era, only to return in the 2000s, thanks to the support of Mexican artists, said Chan Vitharin, a printmaking enthusiast and a professor at the Royal University of Fine Arts (RUFA) in Phnom Penh.

Since 2011, the CHAR-RUFA Printmaking Studio has consisted of 16 professional artists who have worked to teach this technique and bring back this artform in the country. The project has involved Mexican artists who volunteered to obtain a lithography press, the material required to use it, and to have this sent by ship from Mexico. But the artists could only raise enough funds—through fundraising and also by donating their artworks—for one press. So, there has been limited resources to create fine works through printmaking in Cambodia, Vitharin said.  

The exhibition in Phnom Penh includes works done when the press was first set up in the early 2010s as well as lithography works from today’s students at RUFA, Vitharin said. Artworks from different periods are being presented so that visitors can get an idea of the timelessness of the works done by artists from generation to generation, he said.

“It is timeless because our journey does not end,” Vitharin said. “We start, and we continue endlessly.” 

Over the years, there has been a few exhibitions in Phnom Penh featuring lithography works done at the studio. However, in the exhibition “Timeless,” Vitharin said, “[today’s] young students can show their work to the public…It’s exciting that all artworks from the printmaking studio…can be displayed all together.” 

Some of the prints shown at the exhibition. Photo:  Plantation Urban Resort and Spa

To date, printmaking is offered as a short course for art students at RUFA alongside their main majors of study. As Vitharin explained, this is not a bachelor major in which students would spend four years studying as is the case with other majors due to the limited resources and popularity.

Still, printmaking is also an important form of art, he said, if only for the fact that it gives the artists and the public choices. “Art is divers,” he said. “Artists have different and preferred ways to show their work. We can do classic and temporary work, and have ancient and modern music. But, each one cannot be completely left out: They complement each other.”

Printmaking art: “It’s hard but worth it”

Chheang Makara, a graphic design student at RUFA who on the exhibition opening night showed visitors how to make an artwork through printmaking, has been taking the lithography course, thinking of it as an additional skill in graphic design. 

From Takeo province, Makara eloquently explained the technique, obviously enthusiastic about lithography. First, he sketched the artwork on a piece of wood; then he sculpted curved lines in the wood along the design. As Makara explained, he must be extra cautious when sculpting the lines so that the paint will only fill the lines set and not spill out of them and ruin the paper and design.

“At first, I found this very challenging,” he said. “I used to sketch on the paper, but now I have to cut and curve the wood, which is really hard on my hands. I have to be in control of my energy when curving so that I can get the fine finished product.”

Students from the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh pose with the prints they produced as demonstration during the opening ceremony of the exhibition. From left, Chheng Try, Chhang Makara, Sok Chivorn, and Chim Panha. Photo: Plantation Urban Resort and Spa

Asked what is special about printmaking, Makara said it’s about its uniqueness, that is, you can only have one artwork of yours in the world as you create and produce your own templates.

Makara and his friends at RUFA have been taking the printmaking course for only four months but they find this fascinating, he said. This reminds him of the traditional Cambodian technique for inscriptions on palm leaves, he said, which makes printmaking unique. “It gives me a new type of joy when I learn printmaking, which is new to me,” he said. 

Chheng Try, also a student who was demonstrating printmaking at the exhibition opening, said that to have his student printmaking team demonstrate this technique to the public and having their works exhibited for hundreds of people to see was an incredible experience. “I am so proud and unable to find the right words to describe my feelings,” Try said.

Chan Vitharin, who has been in the art field for 36 years, said there are three techniques involved in lithography: woodcut, dry-point and etching printing. Mexican artist Fernando Aceves Humana and the group Tequio La Buena Impresion have come to Cambodia several times to teach and help Cambodian colleagues and students master these techniques. 

Vitharin envisions the future of the industry where diversity in art is seen and valued among the Cambodian people, where printmaking is widely seen, making this art form diverse and rich in Cambodia. 

“This is our aim,” he said. “The next generation, the enthusiasts, the leaders and the community must put in effort to make this happen.”

The exhibition “Timeless: Expressions Through Art” at the Plantation Urban Resort & Spa in Phnom Penh has been curated by Marina Pok of the Anicca Foundation.

The Plantation Urban Resort & Spa is located at 28 Street 184 in Phnom Penh.

Students from the Royal University of Fine Arts demonstrate how to produce a print on opening night at the exhibition. Photo:  Plantation Urban Resort and Spa

One of the prints on exhibit at the Plantation Urban Resort and Spa. Photo: Nout Daro