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Lot 34

 

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It was in the early 1960s, when Gaitonde was working out of a small studio at the Bhulabhai Desai Memorial Institute in Mumbai, that he began his experiments with the layering of pigment and manipulation of light and texture to create a series of what he termed, not abstract, but 'non-objective' paintings. Influenced by Zen philosophy and the principles of minimalism, Gaitonde's works on paper and canvas from this period pulsate with an innate... It was in the early 1960s, when Gaitonde was working out of a small studio at the Bhulabhai Desai Memorial Institute in Mumbai, that he began his experiments with the layering of pigment and manipulation of light and texture to create a series of what he termed, not abstract, but 'non-objective' paintings. Influenced by Zen philosophy and the principles of minimalism, Gaitonde's works on paper and canvas from this period pulsate with an innate lyricism as well as a sense of mystery.

Arguably the most critical and definitive decade of Gaitonde's career, the 1960s marked some of his most meaningful artistic achievements. Dnyaneshwar Nadkarni notes that it was during this period that the artist "…gradually eschew[ed] the accidental element in his work…There is an evocative power in these paintings which operates on more than one level: there is a sense of atmosphere, there is an approximation of music and, what is most important, there is a throbbing mystery about the very process of viewing and responding as if one is sucked into some still centre of hitherto unknown experience" (Gaitonde, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, 1983, not paginated).

The present lot, one of Gaitonde's early ink paintings on paper, is a sublime masterpiece in which each element seems to alternately emerge into being and evaporate. Contemplating the bearing that Gaitonde's stay at the Bhulabhai Institute had on his work from the period like this one, fellow artist Prabhakar Kolte notes that the artist would come out onto the lawns of the Institute and spend "…hours on end staring at the infinite vastness of the sea before him…A very important element that may have attracted his attention may have been the horizon. You can see it but it does not actually exist…If you take one step towards it, it takes one step back…It was probably this play of experiencing infinity that pushed Gaitonde back into the womb of that imaginary, evasive line. The journey of Gaitonde's visual sensitivities meandered through undecipherable formlessness towards an independent form. His paintings came into existence bearing the trademark of his genius and as nothing but paintings in themselves" ("Husain and Gaitonde", From Art to Art - Essays and Critique by Prabhakar Kolte, Bodhana Arts Foundation, Mumbai, 2008, p. 80).

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