Osian's Auction Catalogue Indian Modern Contemporary Fine Arts | October 2018

101 Indian Modern Contemporary Fine Arts Ganesh Pyne b. 11 June 1937 – d. 12 March 2013 The Night Watch Tempera on canvas pasted on board, 1962 15.0 x 22.0 in (38.0 x 56.0 cm) S/d in Bengali ‘Ganesh Pyne 62’ l.r. Label ‘Ganesh Pyne, 3/1A, Kaviraj Row, Calcutta-700073’ on verso ` 10,000,000 – 15,000,000 $ 138,890 – 208,330 Full DPS image on pp.98-99 Provenance Formerly in the art collection of the Late Dr. Bibhuty Bhusan Palit, who was an assistant to the great Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy, physicist, educationist and the first former Chief Minister of West Bengal (1948-62). This Lot will be accompanied with a signed Certificate of Authenticity from Meera Pyne, w/o artist Ganesh Pyne. 42 Reference of a smaller paper study A painting from the same series was sold at Christie’s – 11 June 2012 (Lot 68) Untitled Tempera on paper, 1962 13.2 x 15.2 in Sold for GBP 27,500 A significant and probably the earliest major tempera painting created by Ganesh Pyne in 1962 “With the temperas, his style matured and evolved in its own identity. The figuration became more angular…He began to texturise his paintings more obviously, intensifying the air of mystery. In the creation of archetypal or iconic, forms, he began to draw from elements of folk painting. When asked about these changes, he said that the medium demanded it. According to Pyne, tempera is such a soft, flat medium that to give it tonal variation, depth and interesting contrasts, he had to change his style accordingly…Building up the layers with short, hatching strokes and waiting for the paint to dry before the next layer can be applied is a painstaking process. What Pyne never says but it is obvious in his work is that the use of tempera, he has devised a style whereby he gives an enigmatic form to his melancholy interior world without screaming out loud about his personal sorrows and sense of loss.” Ella Dutta, rpt. in Ganesh Pyne His Life and Times. Kolkata: CIMA 1998, p.46 It is a little known fact that Ganesh Pyne started experimenting and mastering the use of tempera on canvas immediately after passing out of college in 1962 as The Night Watch (1962) clearly reveals. “A glimpse of the notebooks reveals a stream-of-consciousness process. As the image takes concrete shape, he continues to develop it. Pyne is seen at his purest in the notebooks. The lines are precise, controlled, the drawing strong and potent. The images are enigmatic, lyrical, melancholy and haunted. One can see in these sketches, stripped off the seductions of colour, the architectonic quality that he wants to convey in the structuring of his images. And then[with] the cross- hatchings he creates shadowy, mysterious, even terrifying dimensions.” Ella Datta, rpt in Ganesh Pyne: His Life & Times. Kolkata: CIMA 1998; p.57 Detailed Artist Biography osianama.com/artists/ ganesh-pyne