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The current work is characteristic of Pyne’s 1960s style. and Shakti was a magician of imagery.’ (ibid., p. 37) For both
There is a sense of depth and idyllic lightness portrayed poet and artist ‘…the beauties of the flesh are but passing.
through the melancholic nature of the painting where he The skeleton is the ultimate truth. But they put their faith
uses the firmness of line and light with a subtle yet in some eternal values. The source of illumination in Pyne’s
luminous palette. Inspired by the Bengal School artists, tenebrous world was not mere painterly device. It was a
Pyne turns to tempera in the early 1960s and makes it his symbol of knowledge and wisdom. It is clear that the poet
own medium. As Ella Datta says ‘Pyne’s early paintings in and painter shared a melancholy temperament, a trait
the late fifties show an artist who had deep admiration for shared by many of Bengal’s creative artists. It is also very
Abanindranath Tagore and Nandalal Bose. The naturalistic obvious that the sensibilities of the poet and the painter
figuration, the sensitive palette rendered in washes remind were shaped by their times… the Calcutta of the fifties and
one of the masters Bengal school… From the mid sixties sixties played a big role in moulding them.’ (ibid., p. 38)
however, Pyne’s style underwent a radical transformation.
He discarded pure naturalism and evolved a distinctive 117
visual language gradually. He was groping towards this
early on in the sixties. He replaced the transparent medium
of watercolour with, first ink, then gouache, and later
tempera. The palette darkened considerably. The dramatic
change so wonderful to observe, made him straddle the
chasm between several generations of artists.’ (Ella Datta,
Ganesh Pyne His Life and Times, Calcutta, 1998, p.?14)

The tempera illustrated depicts an ethereal angel like figure
with wings spread out. The poetry of Shakti Chattopadhyay
left an indelible impression on Pyne and death haunts
Shakti’s poems in the same way as it lurks in the imagery of
Pyne. The artist states ‘Images are the bedrock of my art