In this series of ink paintings, we get a significant peek at the working methods of the celebrated contemporary abstract artist, Ganesh Haloi. Like the Taoist and Zen masters of East Asia, Haloi’s reduction of color reveals the pure asceticism of his structural method. The sensory presence of the riparian landscapes of Bengal are referents of memory manifest entirely in monochrome. At the same time, these referents are analyses, reduction to elementary forms, or rhythmic punctuations evoking music. These patterns and elements, dashed strokes, squiggles, crosses and triangles — large and small — occupy a plane of symbolic memory, where the unconscious is structured like a visual language.

Published in association with Akar Prakar, Kolkata.