Ganesh Pyne: A philosopher & reclusive minstrel

Ganesh Pyne, who died of a cardiac arrest on Tuesday, was happy to sell his works for Rs. 20 till the late-‘60s. After 2006, this reclusive and deeply philosophical artist’s works began fetching anything between Rs. 50 lakh and Rs. 1 crore. HT reports.

Artist Ganesh Pyne, who died of a cardiac arrest on Tuesday, was happy to sell his works for Rs. 20 till the late-‘60s. After 2006, this reclusive and deeply philosophical artist’s works began fetching anything between Rs. 50 lakh and Rs. 1 crore.

Art critic and friend Pranab Ranjan Ray, though, remembers Pyne as a social animal, who met friends at addas every day in the ‘60s and ‘70s.

“He was a man satisfied with his art, who did not aspire to be famous,” said fellow artist and Pyne’s biographer Shiladitya Sarkar.

So how would they describe Pyne’s art?

“Something between life and death – the twilight zone,” said Prakash Kejriwal, owner of Chitrakoot Art Gallery, who was one of the earliest collectors of Pyne’s works.