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“The term drawing in art usually signifies the primary stage in the process of making a complete work. My drawings are, however, complete works.” - GANESH PYNE

Ganesh Pyne was reticent in nature and made only rare excursions as a young man. The present lot is a sketchbook from 1961, the year he graduated from the Government College of Art in Calcutta and took a trip to Orissa before continuing his search for a job. He visited Puri,... “The term drawing in art usually signifies the primary stage in the process of making a complete work. My drawings are, however, complete works.” - GANESH PYNE

Ganesh Pyne was reticent in nature and made only rare excursions as a young man. The present lot is a sketchbook from 1961, the year he graduated from the Government College of Art in Calcutta and took a trip to Orissa before continuing his search for a job. He visited Puri, Bhubaneswar, Konark, and Khandagiri and made sketches of the temple architecture he observed. A few pages of the book also include temples from other states such as the famous Durga temple in Ahiole, Karnataka. These early drawings occupy a vital space in the artist’s oeuvre as examples of his technical mastery and fine handling of details that would go on to characterise his later paintings. Pyne’s interest in architecture, evidenced by this sketchbook, manifested itself in his mature works where he used architectural forms as visual metaphors. “The character of Pyne’s composition reveals an architectonic structure. His textures, especially in his depiction of headgear and the human body, reveal an architectural rigidity. He resorts…to the use of architectural features like columns, staircases, entrances, doors and windows, either set off by or devoid of human figures…Often, this feeling of inner emptiness is projected through buildings. (Shiladitya Sarkar, “The House on Kaviraj Row”, Thirst of a Minstrel: The Life and Times of Ganesh Pyne, New Delhi: Rupa & Co., p. 63)

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