SHIFTING IMAGES

A new book of essays on Ganesh Haloi interspersed with previously unpublished illustrated folios and sketches

- Malini Banerjee

Ganesh Haloi: A Rhythm Surfaces in the Mind is, like its title, about the melody evoked by the artist’s earth-toned abstract oeuvre. This recently published monograph brought out by Mapin Publishing and Akar Prakar, and edited by Natasha Ginwala and Jesal Thacker, traverses the artist’s six-decade practice and, in the process, raises as many questions as it answers.

While much has been written on Haloi, including an autobiography, Amar Katha, which won the Manojmohan Basu Smarak Samman from the Paschimbanga Bangla Akademi, this book looks at his artistic practice as adjacent to and not just as a result of the tumultuous upheavals of his life. Featuring essays from curators and critics, and many of Haloi’s hitherto unseen works, sketches as well as familiar gouaches and watercolours, the book is an immersive study of the artist and his practice.

ART AS LANGUAGE

An untitled gouache artwork from 2007 by Ganesh Haloi