Rupy C. Tut: New Etchings

Crown Point Press is pleased to release its first project with Oakland-based artist Rupy C. Tut. In the spring of 2024 in the Press’s etching studio, Tut created her first intaglio prints during a two-week residency.

Tut is influenced by 18th century traditional Indian painting and was trained in the techniques of that period. She creates densely colorful figurative paintings which reflect social and contemporary issues of motherhood, feminism, patriarchy, identity and the environment. To create the paintings, Tut transfers line drawings onto hemp paper or linen and hand-mixes her palette from raw pigments. In the Crown Point studio, she used hard ground and soft ground etching to create fine lines and the aquatint technique for color.

In these six new etchings, Tut melds traditional forms, exquisite line drawing, and rich color to tell personal stories about the landscape and the female figure. She has said, “I strive to center the narrative around female characters who are struggling but resilient, facing hardships but also bolstered by support systems, and tackling patriarchal challenges while also setting examples of winning the fight.” In the print, A matter of presence, Tut uses line work and movement to symbolize her experience of diving fearlessly into a new medium.

Rupy C. Tut was born in northern India in 1985, and immigrated to California with her family in the late 1990s. She received a B.S. from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2006 and a M.P.H from Loma Linda University in 2009. In 2016 she studied traditional Indian painting at Prince’s School of Traditional Arts, London. Her first solo exhibition was at the Peel Art Gallery, Museum and Archives, Ontario, Canada and most recently, her work was exhibited at the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco (Into View: New Voices, New Stories) and at the Fowler Museum, University of California, Los Angeles (Contemporary Sikh Art). Tut is the recipient of the 2024 SECA Award; her work will be shown at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in December 2024. She is represented by the Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco. Her work is in the collections of the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento; the de Young Museum, San Francisco; and the Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis.