During the 1980s, Ganesh Pyne’s painterly style crystalized and matured. The subtleties in his palette and his mastery of light and shadow synthesised, and he began to play with a softened texture. It was during this period that the artist also attracted global acclaim, in part, following an interview in The Illustrated Weekly of India where the famed Indian modernist Maqbool Fida Husain called Pyne the best painter in India. ‘The comment brought Pyne into centre-stage resulting in mounting attention and demands from the press, the galleries, the buyers who were only in search of signatures and an increasing circle of collectors. It was a disturbing phenomenon for the almost reclusive artist, and it aggravated his sense of insecurity.’ (E. Datta, Ganesh Pyne: His Life and Times, Centre of International Modern Art, Calcutta, 1998, p. 63)
Throughout the 80s, Ganesh Pyne struggled with his own commercial success. Due to the increasing demand for his works, and an unwillingness to deal directly with buyers, Pyne needed someone to manage sales, and he asked his college sweetheart Meera Datta. They met while studying at the Government College of Arts in the 1950s but had to part ways because ‘she belonged to one of the richest families in Calcutta. He had little to offer her. He had hardly any future prospects.’ (Ibid., p. 34)
Like the fantasies Pyne painted for decades, he finally lived his own: Meera and Pyne married in a private ceremony in 1991. He said in an interview in 1990,
“the tide, I feel, has turned. I have distorted radically the figure and the environment around it. The time has now come to restore the sense of wholeness… I am no longer painting like I used to, the kind of old, skeletal figures where the bone structure showed, Instead, I have been trying to flesh out the figures.”
The present work, executed during the year of his marriage, represents a beautiful turning point in Pyne’s personal life and subsequently in his oeuvre.
Image reproduced from E. Datta, Ganesh Pyne: His Life and Times, Centre of International Modern Art, Calcutta, 1998, p. 73
The baul or mystic is a favourite in Pyne’s cast of characters, and bears a special importance to his birthplace, Bengal. Wandering the northern and northeastern regions of India, this sect of devotees believes in a society without caste or creed and are influenced by Hinduism, Tantric philosophy, Sufi traditions and Buddhist thought. Bauls abandon all worldly pleasures on their spiritual path, using poetry, music, song and dance as vehicles to experience ultimate truth.
In the current lot, Pyne depicts a holy man in rich, earthy pigments. The shades of blue and orange in an unusually two-dimensional plane reflect the triumphant mood and certitude that this era brought to Pyne. The baul’s eyes are half-open and reflective, reminiscent of depictions of Hindu gods and Buddha. Prayer beads hang slightly askew around his neck and a white turban is wrapped lopsided around his head This natural depiction speaks to the tireless wandering of the baul. Untitled (Baul) bears witness to a moment of peace and wholeness that Pyne felt in the 90s, where, unlike the baul who forgoes worldly pleasures, the artist had found great happiness in marrying the love of his life.