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Lot 62

 

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Painted in 1953, this paperwork is poised at a pivotal moment in Gaitonde's oeuvre, when "the need to establish a meaningful relationship between line and painted surface," according to critic Dnyaneshwar Nadkarni, was one of the artist's primary concerns. Gaitonde's work underwent a critical transformation during this decade, when he turned from the purely figurative, towards abstraction. Early on this journey, he encountered the work and... Painted in 1953, this paperwork is poised at a pivotal moment in Gaitonde's oeuvre, when "the need to establish a meaningful relationship between line and painted surface," according to critic Dnyaneshwar Nadkarni, was one of the artist's primary concerns. Gaitonde's work underwent a critical transformation during this decade, when he turned from the purely figurative, towards abstraction. Early on this journey, he encountered the work and writings of Swiss German artist Paul Klee. Klee employed multiple techniques and mixed media in his art, including watercolours, to create paintings which deeply impacted Gaitonde's own aesthetics. "Alongside Gaitonde's early inspiration from the traditions of Indian painting, the artist also adopted Paul Klee's expressiveness of line, color harmonies, and playfulness of spirit as evidenced in various works from the 1950s." (Sandhini Poddar, "Polyphonic Modernisms and Gaitonde’s Interiorized Worldview," V.S. Gaitonde: Painting as Process, Painting as Life, New York: The Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, 2014, p. 20) This spirit of playfulness is visible in the present lot, which was part of the retrospective, Painting as Process, Painting as Life, at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 2014-15.

"We know that Gaitonde admired the lyrical qualities of Klee's line and colour as well as his precision... Speaking about the impact that Klee had on his work at the time, Gaitonde remarked, "Rather than saying I was influenced by Paul Klee, it should be said that I was drawn to the wondrous forms, colour combinations, beauty of line drawings in his work."" (Meera Menezes, Vasudeo Santu Gaitonde: Sonata of Solitude, Mumbai: Bodhana Arts and Research Foundation, 2016, p. 86) Geometry played an important role in these years, when Gaitonde used shapes and figures that blurred the line between representation and abstraction.

In an essay on Gaitonde's work, his friend, architect Narendra Dengle writes, "Gaitonde himself said that when Paul Klee became a big influence for him 'he became Paul Klee.' Hence one way would be to look at the master's works, who became the guiding light for Gaitonde and see the twists, bends, and interpretations that assumed Gaitonde's consciousness finding outlet in his work." (Narendra Dengle, "Gaitonde: The Spirit of his Painting," Journal of Landscape Architecture, No. 44, New Delhi: LA, Journal of Landscape Architecture, June 2015, p. 99) The present lot contains the germs of abstraction and deeply philosophical simplicity that continued to be revealed in the artist's later work.

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