THE TIES THAT BIND: SOUTH ASIAN MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ART (30 NOVEMBER-01 DECEMBER 2016)

NOVEMBER 2016 | THE TIES THAT BIND

The present lot, titled

The Beast,

depicts the skeletal

figure of an animal wearing a human mask. Pyne uses

tonal textures and repeated hatchings to augment

the anxiety in the image. “Pyne’s visual texts reveal

that man is always stepping out of his own persona

or behaving other than his real self. Man projects and

duplicates himself with the means of symbols and

metaphors.” (Sovon Som

, An Enchanted Space: The

Private World of Ganesh Pyne,

Kolkata: CIMA Gallery

Pvt. Ltd., 2006, p. 24) Pyne’s dark imagery can be traced

back to his childhood home where his imagination

was fuelled by the epics and fairytales told by his

grandmother. He recreates that atmosphere, the

juxtaposition of light-and-shadow in much of his

work, including the present lot. “When he painted

through the night in his room in his shadow-webbed

ancestral house during the 1970s and 1980s, his works

would take on the aura of the night, come alive

with nocturnal moods and forms.” (Ranjit Hoskote,

Ganesh Pyne: A Pilgrim in the Dominion of Shadows

Kolkata: Gallerie 88, 2005, p. 16)

Ganesh Pyne’s artistic vision is the result of a

deliberate break from any academic or institutional

influences. “Pyne’s ‘signature’ style is shaped by his

own experiences of solitude and alienation that he

had lived through and aided by the pain and horror

he had witnessed in the city of Calcutta during the

sixties of the last century. What surfaced in his art

however appear as mysteriously enriched with moods

of tenderness and calm serenity, rich with visual depth

in which every single stroke appear charged with

muted eloquence.” (Arun Ghose,

Jottings as Paintings

of Ganesh Pyne

, Agra: Sanchit Art Gallery, 2014, p. 2)

GANESH PYNE

(1937 - 2013)

The Beast

Signed and dated in Bengali (lower right); signed

and dated in Bengali (on the reverse)

2007

Conte on paper

20.75 x 17.25 in (52.6 x 43.6 cm)

$ 15,155 - 22,730

Rs 10,00,000 - 15,00,000

This lot is offered at NO RESERVE

AVINASH CHANDRA

(1931 - 1991)

Untitled

Signed and dated 'Avinash 65' (lower right)

1965

Watercolour and sketch pen on paper

20.75 x 28.75 in (53 x 73 cm)

$ 3,000 - 4,000

Rs 1,98,000 - 2,64,000

PROVENANCE:

Private Collection, USA