About Ganesh Haloi
Ganesh Haloi, born in 1936 in Jamalpur, East Bengal (now Bangladesh), had migrated to Kolkata in 1950 during the times of India going through the tumults of partition. After graduating from the Government college of Arts and Crafts, Kolkata he joined the Archaeological Survey of India as a senior artist to work at Ajantha Caves for over 6 years, meticulously studying the Buddhist cave murals and monasteries, the images, motifs and the lighting which would eventually reflect in his works.
He has had a journey of painting pure landscapes transitioning into innerscapes as the childhood memories of his homeland at the banks of Brahmaputra travelling back to him through the lands in the paintings, gradually depriving of the human presence.
Insisting upon artists having their own world to cultivate, his visuals give a sense of oneness with nature within, nature without. It sends people to a transcendental space and metaphysical instances within an ordinary landscape which the artist has been painting in his intimate space. Works resembling the earlier Banasthali, Rajasthani miniature style to the frescoes at Ajantha, the landscapes to architectural structures and geographical terrains to the forms of abstraction to a spiritual essence, pain and isolation are at it’s core, being important factors significant to the paintings.
The irregular moments of life, being painted by having colour dimensions depicting nature are not only as a visual documentation but also the poetry of nature. A simplification of forms and division of the space, indigenous lines and the colours by Haloi often state poignancy throughout.
A receptive painter, he has had numerous exhibitions in Kolkata in 1962, Melbourne in 1991 and at Bose Pacia Modern, New York, in 1995. In 2002, his work was featured in an exhibition curated by Manjit Bawa at the Societe Asiatique, Gurgaon, and in 2003 at the Chitrakoot Art Gallery, Kolkata. Haloi received the gold medal from Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata in 1963-64 and 1970. In 1970, he was also conferred the Rabindra Bharati Award, Kolkata, and in 1991 was the recipient of the Shiromani Puraskar, conferred by the Government of India.
The artist lives and works in Kolkata.
