Ganesh Pyne

Acquired by the current owner from the Sarala Art Centre in 1994

There is very minor pigment loss only visible upon close inspection. This painting is in overall good condition, as viewed.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Ganesh Pyne developed a unique visual language to depict his own mythological universe. Pyne's melancholic paintings typically portray skeletal mythological figures within dark and fantastical landscapes. Painting in watercolour and later tempera, he established a technique of building up translucent layers of pigment allowing him to achieve an ethereal luminescence in his works. His approach to colouration was influenced by the traditions of the Bengal School and in particular the work of Abanindranath Tagore whose paintings he first saw at the age of fifteen. He also studied the work of Nandalal Bose, and like Bose prepared his own pigments, binders and fixers. This was a pain-staking process, sometimes taking months to complete.

Pyne's iconography was derived from a combination of myth and memory. As a boy, Pyne was very close to his grandmother who used to tell him Bengali folk tales. These folk stories stimulated his imagination providing him with a visual vocabulary that he went on to use throughout his career. The morbid subject matter of many of his paintings was influenced by his own tragic circumstances. His father died when he was nine years old and this was shortly followed by the Calcutta riots of 1946. During the riots, Pyne witnessed looting, arson and murder amid the streets of Calcutta. The death of his grandmother in 1965 brought a further sombre tone to his works. At the start of the 1970s, Pyne witnessed more suffering during the Pakistan and Bangladesh wars. His primary concerns then became depicting figures that were on the borders of society, migrants and social outcasts that increasingly populated the streets around him. Pyne admits to being an intensely private person and his figures tend to be solitary, introspective beings. The current and previous lot depicting the monkey god Hanuman is a subject the artist returned to on a number of occasions. As identified by Amrita Jhaveri, depictions of a monkey dressed as a prince or a performing animal are seen in works such as The Ape (1964), Veer Bahadur (1988) and The Monkey Prince. (A. Jhaveri, A Guide to 101 Modern & Contemporary Indian Artists, India Book House Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, 2005, p. 68).