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25 often showing a young lady completing her beauty rituals
as she waits in anticipation for her lover. Depicted using
PROPERTY OF MR. AVINASH CHOPRA simple black lines, she is shown in profile wearing a pale
yellow and white outfit with large almond-shaped eyes. The
VASUDEV S. GAITONDE starkness of the outfit is perfectly complemented by her red
lips, the red bangles at her wrists and her red hair ornament.
1924?–?2001 His clever use of the same bright red mixed with mustard
tones for most of the background further accentuates the
Untitled central figure and unifies her with her surroundings. The flat
perspective and lack of depth, as suggested by the dhurrie
Gouache on card that seems to lie partially on the simple mud structure,
1949 further helps to merge the painting into one harmonious
8? × 9 in. (22.6 × 22.7 cm.) whole. Both the figure and the surrounding landscape are
highly stylised, as seen by the patterns on the trees and the
Signed and dated ‘V S Gaitonde / 15-8-1949 / 15th August’ ground.
on reverse
This ‘manner of painting’, using few colours and stylised
??20,00,000?–?30,00,000 forms, lends itself to what Dnyaneshwar Nadkarni terms
‘a vividness throbbing with life’. His use of colours even at
$ 29,850?–?44,775 this early time made ‘…it easy to predict his eventual
journey towards the non-objective world.’ (Dnyaneshwar
PROVENANCE: Nadkarni, Gaitonde, New Delhi, 1983, unpaginated) Richard
The current group of early figurative works (lots 25 and 26) Bartholomew also comments on seeing the abstract in
are the property of a personal friend of the artist. They were these and other works that appear seemingly figurative.
gifted to the current owner by Gaitonde at the beginning his ‘Abstract painting is neither more profound nor more
artistic career in Mumbai. complex than naturalistic or expressionistic painting. One
has merely to read an Indian miniature from top to bottom
Mr. Chopra studied Fine Art at the Sir J.J. School of Art from and diagonally to be able to see that though the meaning
1949 to 1951. Even though Gaitonde had completed his may be literary, the significance that we derive from seeing
diploma by then, Mr. Chopra used to meet a group of young the storm sky, the flight of herons or the grove of
artists including Gaitonde, Ara, and Husain at exhibitions blossoming trees, for instance, is only a part of the total
and at the Artist Aid Guild, of which they were all members. vision that we experience. The colour scheme and the
In his own words, ‘Gaitonde was a friendly though reserved arrangement of forms, etc., are factors and qualities which
gentleman.’ Their paths separated soon after, as Mr. Chopra constitute the theme, and which the theme, as such,
joined an advertising agency in 1950. They did, however, articulates. The “memorableness” of the miniature is, in
remain in touch in those early years, and Gaitonde gifted fact an aesthetic experience which is fundamentally and
these works to him shortly after. essentially abstract.’ (Richard Bartholomew, ‘The Abstract
Principle in the Paintings of Ram Kumar’ Lalit Kala
This jewel of a work belongs to a small group of figurative Contemporary 19 & 20, September 1975, p. 13)
works done right after Gaitonde finished studying at the
Sir J.?J. School of Art in 1948. It illustrates beautifully, his Gaitonde himself explains the transition from figuration to
understanding of and interest in Indian miniature paintings, non-representational works. ‘Early on, I did both figurative
specifically the traditions of Pahari miniatures and Jain and non-figurative paintings; I was initially influenced by
paintings. Predictably, even in these formative years, his Indian miniatures … [then] I started eliminating the figures
attention was not drawn toward the narrative, but more and just saw the proportions of colours… I experimented
toward the stylistic elements and the arrangement and with this because sometimes figures can bind you, restrict
balance of colours in those works. It was Professors your movements. I just took patterns instead. I think that
Ahivasi and Palsikar at art school, who were largely step really marked the beginning of my interest and
responsible for familiarising the young Gaitonde with the preoccupation in [non-objective] painting.’ (V.S. Gaitonde in
history and techniques of Indian classical painting as seen an interview with M. Lahiri, Patriot, September 27, 1985)
in the works of the late 1940s and early 1950s.
In the current work from 1949, he has chosen the ever-
popular theme of a nayika sitting and combing her hair, a
subject seen often in the miniature painting tradition, most
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