The Open Studio / Aman Kumar
Aman Kumar
“Ancient Citadel”
Every white line here is wood the knife took away
The sky is cut into white streaks, like wind made of wood shavings.
The temple holds the last light on its hill.
Its columns stand in a thin row against the cloud.
Below, rocks crowd the path in black and white.
Small trees lean along a broken fence.
Every bright mark is a place the knife went in.
The work
Aman Kumar studies at RIMT University in Ludhiana. For this 2025 woodcut Kumar carves a view of the Parthenon on its rocky hill into a wooden block. Cutting away the wood leaves deep blacks and crisp white spaces. The hardest part is the small detail. Every column must stay sharp and not turn muddy. As Kumar says, "One slip of the carving tool and an entire window or texture is gone forever." The aim is to give old stone real weight on paper.
In the artist’s words
“I wanted to translate the heavy, timeless feeling of ancient spaces into ink and paper. I used woodcut, carving into the block to create intense blacks and crisp white negative spaces. The hardest part was keeping tiny details, like the individual columns of the Parthenon, from getting muddy. One slip of the carving tool and a texture is gone forever.”
- Theme
- Weight of ancient stone
- Material
- Woodcut print on paper
- Year
- 2025
- Edition
- 1 of 1
- Framed
- Yes
- About the artist
- RIMT University
- From
- LUDHIANA
- Code
- RC-307
