About Ganesh Haloi
Ganesh Haloi was born in 1936 in Jamalpur, East Bengal (now Bangladesh). During the tumultuous times of India's partition in 1950, he was displaced from his home due to sectarian violence. Despite his helplessness, he developed strong willpower and a deep desire to paint. To earn money, he bought rice at lower rates in Rampurhat and Pakur and carried sacks on his shoulders to sell them at a higher price in Rajmahal, where his family and other refugees were living without much hope for rehabilitation. Through this hard work, he managed to save some money to continue his passion for painting, using paper, paints, and brushes on a jackfruit wood board he had brought from home. An officer from Patna encouraged him to continue practicing and to join an art course on the refugee quota. Haloi was determined to join an art college by any means possible. After graduating from the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Kolkata, he worked as a senior artist at the Archaeological Survey of India, where he studied the Buddhist cave murals and monasteries at Ajanta Caves for over six years. This meticulous study of the images, motifs, and lighting in the caves would eventually reflect in his works.
Haloi's artistic journey began with painting pure landscapes but gradually transitioned into inner scapes, reflecting childhood memories of his homeland at the banks of Brahmaputra. He creates works that give a sense of oneness with nature, both within and without, insisting that artists have their own world to cultivate. His paintings depict ordinary landscapes that send people to a transcendental space and metaphysical instances. Haloi's works range from earlier Banasthali and Rajasthani miniature styles to frescoes at Ajanta, landscapes to architectural structures, and geographical terrains to the forms of abstraction to spiritual essence, pain, and isolation. His paintings are filled with tiny details that reflect the natural world, such as creeper, waves, and aquatic plants. The shadow of death that he experienced during the violence never darkens his work, and he remains unperturbed by the catastrophe he witnessed.
Haloi has had numerous exhibitions in Kolkata, Melbourne, and New York. He received the gold medal from the Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata, in 1963-64 and 1970, the Rabindra Bharati Award, Kolkata, in 1970, and the Shiromani Puraskar, conferred by the Government of India, in 1991. He recently released his book, "A Rhythm Surfaces in the Mind," at Pepper House during the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. The book includes essays by renowned art critics, unpublished watercolor sketches, reviews of Haloi's work, and sketches of all his creative works. Haloi lives and works in Kolkata.
