'Re-citations: Rhymes About Land, Water and Sky: Six Decades of Painting’, at Birla Academy of Art and Culture, allows art lovers to escape into the world of artist Ganesh Haloi. The first large-scale exhibition at the South Calcutta gallery, in collaboration with Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, on Haloi spans six decades of the octogenarian’s artwork, right from his early works with imprints of figural images to abstract paintings that were his responses to nature and the world.
Glimpses of Ganesh Haloi's exhibition at Birla Academy of Art and Culture
Spread across two floors, the exhibition, which has been curated by Roobina Karode, director and chief curator of the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, presents Haloi’s recent work on the first floor and his older artworks on the fourth floor. The exhibition, with Akar Prakar as the programme and outreach partner, that was inaugurated last month, will continue till April 13, giving fans of Haloi enough time to immerse themselves in the world of the celebrated artist whose work is resplendent with themes of displacement and imagined landscapes that are rooted in his experience of the Partition.
Part of the exposition is also Haloi’s artwork during the 1950s when he was appointed by the Archaeological Survey of India to make copies of the Ajanta murals. The mandalas, motifs and figurines had an impact on the artist and he poured them on his canvas, often going beyond the ancient art of temples and portraying villagers and foliage in his work.
The exhibition had an art engagement segment that saw young artists draw, write, stick and clip their artwork on an art board titled 'River of Memories'
Curator Roobina Karode (left) with Reena Lath, co-director Akar Prakar. Talking about curating the exhibition, Karode said: "The difficulty wasn't about curating but my biggest nervousness was which work to display of the artist as each piece of art has its value, story and memory. The exhibition has a limitation of space and I want to apologise because it's not possible to display 60 years of Ganesh Haloi's work on just two floors. He is an extraordinary artist with an amazing life story. It's easy to make 500 pages of a book, but it's difficult to get space for an exhibition. So I had to think a lot about the placement for gouache, tempera, acrylic and more. However, what was clear in my mind was to display all his phases of life."