Ganesh Pyne

He is "whole only when he's painting". An intensely private person, Ganesh Pyne held his first solo exhibition when he was 50 and has rarely moved out of his secluded world in Calcutta, even avoiding public or private transport. A painter of darkness, Pyne's signature style takes shape from his own experiences of solitude, alienation, pain, horror and moods of tenderness and serenity. His paintings are rich in imagery and symbolism, composed by a "mysterious, dream-like tempera technique". The pages from his diaries, where the lines are bold, precise, controlled, provide ample clues to his visual vocabulary. Pyne sketches, doodles and works on the nucleus of the image, subsequent to which it takes shape as a line. He has an eye for purism, and idealisation of forms and ornamentation have their place in his creations. Pyne has been painting for the last 40 years and today he is a favourite of art collectors the world over. He himself abhors the art bazaar and his modesty, yearning for seclusion and minimalist lifestyle are part of art folklore. More often, his images are the offshoots of a particular idea that may have flitted through his mind. And, at times, these images resonate lines from poems that may have left an impression on his mind. He produces not more than half a dozen paintings a year, enjoys the cinema of Ingmar Bergman, Fellini and Tarkovsky, and is inspired by the art of Picasso, Abanindranath Tagore, Paul Klee, Rembrandt and Chagall. When Yehudi Menuhin bought one of his paintings and wrote back to him saying he'd "seen the real India" in it, he decided he wanted no more encomiums. Pyne is said to have once remarked: "Modern convention still prevails and if anti-art is not the future and the re-introduction of the older values is not the remedy, then we must look forward to progress."