IN CONTEXT
In 1948, a year replete with rebellion and innovation, Vasudeo S. Gaitonde graduated from the Sir J.J. School of Art in Bombay. The city’s artists were among the first individuals to translate independent India’s emancipatory spirit into a dictionary of visual idioms, most notoriously the Progressive Artists’ Group (PAG). Founding members Krishnaji Howlaji Ara, Maqbool Fida Husain, Sayed Haider Raza, Sadanand K. Bakre, Hari Ambadas Gade, and Francis Newton Souza united in their desire to break from oppressive, British-era academism with the decree, ‘new art for a newly free India.’ (J. Farago, ‘Firebrands Who Forged a New Art for a New India, 2018, Accessed 20/9/22, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/26/arts/design/the-progressive-revolution-review-asia-society.html
Though Gaitonde shared this ideology and joined the PAG, he soon realised he did not ascribe to the same intentions for his art.
‘While associated with the PAG and later with the Bombay Group, Gaitonde charted an independent course, consciously choosing not to pay banal homage to the social and political causes of the time. The social relevance of art was of no particular interest to him, for Gaitonde’s kingdom was not of this world.’
In the late 1950s, Gaitonde found a haven in the Bhulabhai Desai Memorial Institute (BDMI) in Bombay, a multidisciplinary centre that fostered upcoming talents such as Ebrahim H. Alkazi, Ravi Shankar, Maqbool Fida Husain, Tyeb Mehta, Nasreen Mohamedi, Pilloo Pochkhanawala and B. Prabha. Here, Gaitonde could explore and expand upon his craft, in a dedicated studio, while engaging with the minds and revolutionary work of the artists around him. The Bhulabhai Desai period marked a happy time in his life, for more reasons than one; he fell in love with fellow artist and BDMI resident, Prafulla Joshi.
He also indulged in the space and solitude that he needed for major painterly progression. ‘Gaitonde’s peers often saw him seated on a bench in the garden lawn of the Bhulabhai, his arms crossed, silent and lost in contemplation.’ (R. Karode, Waiting Is a Part of Intense Living, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, 2015, p. 23) While watching the sun set in complete silence, Gaitonde studied the horizon, and it captivated his imagination. Artist and friend Prabhakar Kolte says of these evenings:
‘We experienced this duality of simultaneously existing on the horizon and viewing the same, miles away from us. It was probably this play of experiencing infinity that pushed Gaitonde back into the womb of that imaginary, evasive line.’
A WINNING FORMULA: EVOLUTION OF SUBJECT, FORM AND TECHNIQUE
1959 represents a landmark year in the personal and professional life of Gaitonde - a series of encounters and associations set him off on his enduring journey of experimentation and discovery.
It was in this year that he discovered Eugen Herrigel’s Zen in the Art of Archery in a Bombay bookshop. This newfound interest in Zen Buddhism contributed to this pivotal time. Profoundly impacted by the philosophy that equated absence with wholeness, he deftly applied this concept to the canvas.
‘There is a palpable tension between the vertical and horizontal [in works from this period], an aspect that the artist continually explored. While his paintings of the mid 1950s were usually vertical, we see here the beginnings of a tilt towards the horizontal – a format which he would favour in many large works of the ‘60s.’
Gaitonde also transformed his technique at this time. Prafulla Joshi had just returned from Paris in 1958; she brought back some rollers with her and was using them in her work. Gaitonde was fascinated by the effect they created on the canvas and sought out to get these fabricated locally for his own use. He abandoned watercolour and pastel and began working concurrently with brush and roller. ‘Here we see an opening up of space and a self-confident experimentation with form, colour and scale.’ (S. Poddar, p. 25)
1959 is also when artist/filmmaker Bal Chhabda established the first commercial gallery in Bombay at the BDMI – Gallery 59. Rudi von Leyden opened the inaugural exhibition showcasing works by Gaitonde, Maqbool Fida Husain, Sayed Haider Raza, Akbar Padamsee, Ram Kumar and Krishen Khanna. Gallery 59 introduced an influential circle to Indian modern art and attracted media and art critics’ attention. This period was one of key financial success for Gaitonde. Interestingly, this current lot, which was painted in 1959, was also purchased from Gallery 59.
1958 - 1959: A REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD
1958- 1959 should be seen as a period of its own in Gaitonde’s oeuvre. The importance of this period is summarized succinctly in the words of Sandhini Poddar, as follows:
‘Gaitonde’s consistently nonrepresentational works from 1959 onward resist any intrinsic meaning or description and must be dealt with on their own uncompromised terms. One should experience them ontologically rather than in epistemic terms, given their resistance to narrativity.’
These two years marked a metamorphosis in his artistic practice - a moment of play and experimentation through an architectural transition. Works from this time are few and far between. In total only five works from this period have come up for sale in the last twenty-seven years in the international auction market.
Collection: Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, Mumbai
Right: Abstract, Oil on canvas, 1959 (Sonata of Silence, p. 118)
Collection: Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai
Two significant examples reside in institutional collections namely the Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, Mumbai and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.
PAINTING III, 1959
In Painting III, the oranges, blues and mauves coalesce with shades of grey, black and white to showcase the artist’s meticulous application of paint with roller and palette knife. Gaitonde used these tools to create textured areas on the canvas. By applying pigment in careful and controlled layers onto the surface, he sought a deeper understanding of the medium and the effects that could be achieved with oil paint. In the 1960s onwards, his focus shifted in exploring the translucency that oil could afford, rather than the texture.
Gaitonde’s works truly accomplish metaphysical abstraction, with his earthly contemplations enduring in the brushstrokes he left behind. As a painting created in this monumental year of 1959, Painting III is historically and aesthetically critical in understanding Gaitonde’s life and work. The elements and events of his late-1950s milieu – the Bhulabhai Desai Memorial Institute, his working connection with fellow artists such as Prafulla Joshi and Nasreen Mohamedi, Zen Buddhism, Gallery 59, the introduction of palette knives and rollers – meld within the current lot, to create an incredible and important legacy.