The artist, who was present at the inauguration of the exhibition held in association with Kiran Nadar Museum of Arts, spoke about his journey as a visual artist and author. ‘Without abstraction, nothing can be beautiful. Reality is suffocating, and abstraction sets one free. You cannot see abstraction, you have to feel it,’ said the alumni and former teacher of the Government College of Art and Craft, Kolkata, known for his abstract paintings
Ganesh Haloi, Reena Lath and Roobina Karode on stage. Karode, who has curated the exhibition, spoke about her experience of working with Haloi. ‘He gave me total curatorial freedom because he understands what creative freedom is. He told me about his seven years in Ajanta and pulled the works out one after the other. What always strikes me is what amazing skills he has — even in his early drawings and sketches, his skills are just extraordinary’
The retrospective was also attended by Reena Lath (top), the director of Akar Prakar, and (above) author Rita Bhimani. Bhimani, who has been an admirer of Haloi’s work for over 30 years, said: ‘His continuous evolution as an artist is his strength. His abstraction is what is pulling us and making us look at his work and Ganeshda himself with new eyes. His perspective is ever changing, and that is the beauty of an artist’
Haloi spoke about the importance of river Brahmaputra in his life, looking back to his life in Jamalpur in Bangladesh. His house was on the banks of the river and the courtyard was often flooded. Karode, who had spent hours with Haloi discussing work and selecting from an extensive volume recalled how the artist, spoke about seeking what was unseen to the eyes
The exhibition is on display from March 1 to April 13 on the first and fourth floors of Birla Academy of Art and Culture at Southern Avenue from 3pm to 8pm. The gallery is closed on Mondays and on public holidays. If you are a fan of author Ganesh Haloi, too, his books ‘A Rhythm Surfaces in the Mind’ and ‘The Feeling Eye’ can be collected from the exhibition venue as well as from the website of Akar Prakar