| Ganesh Haloi was born
in Jamalpur, Mymensingh, now in Bangladesh in 1936.
He moved to Calcutta in 1950 following the Partition.
The trauma of the uprooting left its mark on his work
as it did on some other painters of his generation.
In 1956, he graduated from the Government College of
Art and Craft, Calcutta. The next year he joined the
Archaeological Survey of India to make copies of the
Ajanta murals. After seven years, Haloi returned to
Calcutta to work. From 1963 till his retirement, he
taught at the Government College of Art and Craft. Since
1971, he has been a member of the Society of Contemporary
Artists. The experience of Ajanta influenced Haloi profoundly
and his works showed an innate lyricism. Haloi worked
in many mediums and initially painted figures in landscapes.
The mood was poignant. Gradually, he shifted focus to
landscapes. A sense of nostalgia for a lost world pervaded
these paintings. Eventually, Haloi concentrated on abstract
renderings of landscapes. Dots, dashes, lines became
cryptic signs for trees, water, green fields. A refreshing
interlude came when Haloi did some architectural paintings
following a tour of the ruins of Gour Pandua in north
Bengal. He has also done a number of commissioned mosaic
murals. He lives and works in Calcutta.
|
