Still Life Study

This remarkable still-life by Ganesh Pyne carries the whiff of a usual but mesmerising Calcutta morning invariably made up of cha (tea in Bangla), a Bangla newspaper and cigarettes. By painting it in monochrome grey, Pyne lends it a charm, which when viewed today, evokes nostalgia for a way of life fast receding into oblivion. While the likenesses of a pair of specs, a tea cup, ash tray, newspaper and a glass paperweight are stunning, the work becomes special as it is a departure from the most common themes of trauma and poverty, and surrealism that Pyne essayed for a major part of his career.