Like in the case of his predecessor Ganesh Pyne, Manoj Roy?s childhood world was infested with the shadows of ogres as well as the spiritual didacticism that were a salient, if paradoxical, attribute of the grandmother?s tales. Beyond formative years, the elemental fear and ardour took newer shapes and forms and craved for pictorial expression in colour ? first in an isolated, subjective format, then against a meaningful, somewhat abstract, wider ambience. Artists have often evinced such defencelessness in the face of internal and external fears which together constituted the stuff of their creative existence.

Roy?s philosophical quer-ies, which sprang up through his existentialist experiences and ideas over the 30-odd years of his life, are reflected in part-symbolic and part-narrative imagery, embodied by the exhibits on display at the Genesis Art Gallery. Delineated in broad lines and colour (mainly gouache on paper and board), the sculpturesque pictures, embellished with chiaroscuro, have an inexplicable attraction even for the trained viewer.

The works show a strange association of human and non-human forms, including rhythmic, stylised flora shapes, in a fairly closed mental space shorn of detailed perspective, albeit showing sufficient regard to rigorous space division in terms of flat, contrasting colours.