Osian's Auction Catalogue Select Masterpieces of Indian Modern and Contemporary Art | June 2009

93 42 Ganesh Pyne (b.1937) Fossil Man Ink on paper pasted on paper, 1964 S/d in Bengali ‘Ganesh Pyne 64’ l.r. 6.9 x 8.8 in (17.0 x 22.5 cm) Provenance Previously from the Mukund & Neerja Lath Collection INR 800,000 – 1,000,000 USD 16,670 – 20,830 Pyne’s works give a sense of decay, undergrowth that eats up the substance without one’s notice/ knowledge. The skeletal figures hover as if only the memory remains, not the real object. ‘Bone’ becomes a metaphor for the “remanant” as the process of decaying is still ongoing within the time coordinate of the painting. And the site where these remnants are buried, is visited again and again to remind of something rotting. His works have a strong presence of “Time” as an element that is passing away. This work anticipates his later works such as ‘Relics’ (1982) where elements like bones and tools emphasize on the process of recollection. “Death haunts several of the paintings by Ganesh Pyne. It enters stealthily like a fugitive, without notice, like a ghost that melts through closed doors and windows. We can only sense its long hand reaching out, its furtive shadow moving among figures. Death becomes something of an obsession, an intimate friend of the painter.” – Geeti Sen, rpt. in Image and Imagination , Mapin, 1996, p144.