Ganesh Pyne was born in 1937 in Calcutta (now Kolkata). He witnessed the horrors of the partition and it left deep scars on a young boy’s psyche. We see the results of these scars in his paintings. The Bengali folk tales that his grandmother narrated to him in his childhood also played an important role in shaping his artistic style.

He was also influenced by the paintings of the Bengal School of Art –which was established by Abanindranath Tagore and Sunayani Devi in the nineteenth century –in his teenage years. He joined the Government College of Art and Craft, Kolkata against the wishes of his family.

After finishing college in 1959, he met Clair Weeks, an animator who worked at Walt Disney Studios. Clair Weeks’s mentoring also left a deep impact on him.

His first solo exhibition was held in New Delhi in the early 1980s. In 2011, the Indian Chamber of Commerce honoured him with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

He passed away on 2013.