EntertainmentPosted at: Nov 2 2024 7:23PM


Remembering Pioneer of Abstract Art: Vasudeo Santu Gaitonde

Mumbai, Nov 2 (UNI) Born on November 2,1924 completing 100 years of birth ceremony this day, an Indian artist known for his abstract art, whose paintings evoke admiration.
Started his humble days living at a chawl (slum) in Mumbai though originally from Goa.
Vasudeo Gaitonde is considered as one of South Asia's greatest abstract painters and was a part of a rebellious generation of artists who laid the foundation for a new era of Indian art in the mid-20th Century. Inspired by the techniques used in Western painters yet his work remained deeply rooted in Asian philosophy with a unique blend of light and texture.
He joined Mumbai’s famous JJ School of Arts for training in 1946 and was a part of a group of influential Indian artists called the Progressive Artists Group, which was set up to encourage new forms of art. Formed in 1947 in Mumbai, the group counted leading artists such as Francis Souza, SH Raza, MF Husain and Bhanu Athaiya, Gaitonde also worked at the city's Bhulabhai Desai Memorial Institute, another hub frequented by legends such as sitarist Ravi Shankar and theatre artist Ebrahim Alkazi.
According to BBC Marathi, at that time Indian Art was dominated by realism witnessed in the murals of the Ajanta caves and in Mughal art or miniature paintings.
Gaitonde's work was heavily inspired by Japanese Zen Philosophy, which permeated life and art. He was the first one repudiate the form and accept the formless.
"My paintings are nothing else but the reflection of nature," he once wrote in a 1963 questionnaire for New York's Museum of Modern Art.
In 1964, Gaitonde moved to New York on a Rockefeller Fellowship, a turning point that allowed him to engage with the city’s modern art scene and refine his style further. Over the next few decades, his fame grew globally, earning him India’s Padma Shri in 1971, yet he continued to withdraw from public life. By the 1980s, a spinal injury limited his physical output, but his work remained prolific in spirit; he famously remarked that he painted “in his head.”
After his injury his paintings decreased considerably yet his oil painting fetched 420 million rupees (around $5 million) in 2022, setting a record for Indian art.
In an interview with Pritish Nandy, he stated “Everything starts from silence...Your entire being is working together with the brush, the painting knife, the canvas to absorb that silence and create.”
His disciple, artist Laxman Shreshtha, recounted how even MF Husain was often denied entry into Gaitonde’s reclusive world, leaving sketches on his door as a sign of his visit.
In the year 2001, at the age of 77 he died leaving a void in the Indian painting terrain.
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