Osian's Auction Catalogue Indian Antiquities Modern Contemporary Fine Arts and Books | April 2017

71 Ganesh Pyne 1937-2013 The Fakir Mixed media on paper, 1986 S/d in Bengali ‘Ganesh Pyne ‘86’ l.r. 13.0 x 10.0 in (33.0 x 25.3 cm) Provenance Eminent New Delhi-based Private Collection; directly gifted by the artist to the Collector INR 800,000 – 1,200,000 USD 11,940 – 17,910 “The tragic consciousness on the one hand, counterbalanced by the steadiness of a flame, a light, an illuminating release from the terrors lurking in one’s subconscious on the others, are the two opposing pulls that create a visual tension in his works...Pyne is obsessed with creating enigmatic images. These are often drawn from the world of myths. Certain motifs that recur in his paintings have their origin in our traditional lores or in the world of his childhood years. But Pyne appropriates them and transforms them into his own mythic creation... Victor Banerjee, the actor who began collecting Pyne in the seventies, speaks yet of another way that Pyne leaves a bit of himself in his paintings. Just as he watched the patterns on the damp, blistered walls or the texture of old wood bleached by sun and rain with grave interest, so did he watch his body obsessively and record in his painting anything that struck his eye. Pyne acknowledges, “Yes, I used to do this for a while. Say, I cut myself. I would include the appearance of the gash in the texturisation.’” – Datta, Ella. Ganesh Pyne: His Life and Times . Calcutta: CIMA 1998; pp.53-54. 152 | Osian’s–Connoisseurs of Art