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Lot 58

 

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Vasudeo S. Gaitonde insisted on calling his art ‘non-objective’, as opposed to abstract. His works reflect a meditative and spiritual calmness through their mellifluous forms. His “artistic personality … is that he likes to stand alone. He is not an artist for groups. […] This independent-mindedness was accompanied by a firm belief in his identity as a painter. And because of this firmness, Gaitonde isolated himself very early in his career from... Vasudeo S. Gaitonde insisted on calling his art ‘non-objective’, as opposed to abstract. His works reflect a meditative and spiritual calmness through their mellifluous forms. His “artistic personality … is that he likes to stand alone. He is not an artist for groups. […] This independent-mindedness was accompanied by a firm belief in his identity as a painter. And because of this firmness, Gaitonde isolated himself very early in his career from everything in his environment which he considered irrelevant to this identity as a painter. Gaitonde’s growth over the years is marked by an increasing inwardness and a meticulous and watchful consolidation of this identity” (Dyaneshwar Nadkarni, Gaitonde, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, 1983, not paginated).

By the 1980s, more discernible forms had begun appearing in his work. “[Gaitonde] had immense faith in silence. He followed a rule: painting equals life. He considered it the means as well as the end, the journey as well as the destination. And he was psychologically, intellectually and physically prepared for this odyssey … His belief that silence is creative became increasingly firm, to the extent that his paintings attained an enigmatic quality. He became engrossed in trying to develop the visual aspect of silence. As a result, silence transformed onto the canvas spontaneously as a visual script. Parallels to this can be drawn from Zen philosophy, but it would be incorrect to say he was influenced by it” (“Husain and Gaitonde”, From Art to Art – Essays and Critique by Prabhakar Kolte, Bodhana Arts Foundation, Mumbai, 2008, p. 82).

This work features at an important time of the year; the Guggenheim Museum will be holding its first retrospective show on Gaitonde from October 24, 2014 to February 11, 2015.

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