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Lot 22

 

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"The visual experience of my art is an extension of the colours and forms absorbed in childhood." - GANESH PYNE

Ganesh Pyne's work is deeply personal and emotive, stemming from his experiences and familial legacy. Memories of the fairy tales and epics narrated by his grandmother, and his childhood home and surroundings manifest in his paintings in unconventional ways. "The architectural arabesque that was the family home, the... "The visual experience of my art is an extension of the colours and forms absorbed in childhood." - GANESH PYNE

Ganesh Pyne's work is deeply personal and emotive, stemming from his experiences and familial legacy. Memories of the fairy tales and epics narrated by his grandmother, and his childhood home and surroundings manifest in his paintings in unconventional ways. "The architectural arabesque that was the family home, the strange-looking shadows cast by the listeners on the surrounding walls, the narrow lane... created the ambience of his grandmother's tales." (Sovon Som, An Enchanted Space: The Private World of Ganesh Pyne, Kolkata: Centre of International Modern Art, 2005, p. 13) Toys and masks make repeated appearances in the artist's work, as seen in the present lot, perhaps representing a 'safe-space' within the gloomy shadows and haunting images of death in his compositions.

The present lot is also painted in tempera, a medium Pyne had almost exclusively begun using in the mid-1960s. He uses its opacity to create dark, monochromatic tones through which "the painting became a vehicle to convey mood, emotion, atmosphere; and not so much social comment or intellectual ideas. It was a surface on which fleeting flashes or remembered images could be recorded and textures could be created." (Ella Datta, "Abanindranath Tagore: a new context," Yashodhara Dalmia ed., Contemporary Indian Art Other Realities, Mumbai: Marg Publications, 2002, p. 30)

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