Page 94 - Pundole's Auction M0015

47
PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT INDIAN COLLECTION
VASUDEV S. GAITONDE
1924?–?2001
Untitled
Oil on canvas
1957
23¾ × 12? in. (60.3 × 32.6 cm.)
Signed and dated in Devanagari lower right
??2,50,00,000?–?3,50,00,000
$ 373,135?–?522,390
After experimenting with his version of a 20th century
Indian belle in the years immediately following art school
(see lot 25), Gaitonde’s figuration rapidly evolved into one
where geometric, minimal lines overtook the lyrical, fluid
lines of the recent past. For Gaitonde, these early years
were a period of great experimentation and learning. There
was considerable sharing of ideologies, thoughts and ideas
with his fellow artists and friends that he interacted with,
first through art school and later at the Bhulabhai Institute theory… Gaitonde was a perfect draftsman, he was not
in Mumbai where several of them had studios. Even though
their styles and subject choices may have been different,
they shared a common goal, which was to create an Indian
Modernism that broke out of the shadows of colonialism,
and used past Indian art traditions to build new relevant
ones that captured the contemporary reality around them.
Along with his fellow artists, a major influence for him in
the 1950s was Paul Klee. Not just his art, as Dnyaneshwar
Nadkarni says, but it was the Swiss gentleman’s overall
attitude to painting that Gaitonde enjoyed. ‘Klee is light-
hearted, light-weight and is imbued with an imperceptible
sense of humour. Gaitonde grasps the lyricism, and the
linear imitation soon makes way for a preoccupation with
calligraphy and hieroglyphs.’ (Dnyaneshwar Nadkarni,
Gaitonde, New Delhi, 1983, unpaginated) Klee’s use of line
is distinctive, and an adapted version of his whimsical
figures also made its way into Gaitonde’s works of the mid
1950s. The stylisation of the earlier works is now fully
realised, with simple, black, geometric lines delineating
faces and figures.
Gaitonde, however, was not one to be limited to a single
influence or school of thought. Parallel to his exploration
of the line was an equally inspired attempt to understand
how the application of paint itself could be manipulated
to achieve a unique painted surface. This resulted in the
92
appearance of an extremely textured surface, with thicker
areas of paint balancing themselves with the flatter areas
that reflected light in an entirely different manner. The
challenge of balancing line, paint and light on the canvas in
perfect synergy was a concept that consumed the artist’s
mind for many years, and would remain the essence of his
painting even in his more mature period.
The current work illustrates this very interaction of
elements. The line is reduced to a purely painterly tool,
and is joined by other geometric shapes that come together
to depict a human face. The canvas surface, painted in
layers of a wonderfully strong red with black undertones
commands as much attention for its texture and
appearance. The face instantly recalls Klee’s use of line,
as does the background. ‘The thin, somewhat mischievous,
line and the peculiar lyrical play of colours Gaitonde must
have derived from Klee.’ (ibid., unpaginated) Yet, the result
is unique to him.
Krishen Khanna reiterates the importance of Klee on
Gaitonde’s art. ‘In the early years of course Paul Klee had a
great influence on all these painters. It was a new chapter in
painting and it suited his [Gaitonde’s] temperament… Klee
was a teacher who was painting out his theories. He was
very lyrical, and was tempered by music and poetry and
that saved him. He made very poetic images... He took off
from the figure and melded it into his theory, his colour
slovenly; there are many painters who don’t know what
the line can do. He was an impeccable painter… Painting
then has its own language, its own resonance, its ups
and downs, its own life, and that is what he lived.’ (Krishen
Khanna reprinted in Sandhini Poddar, V. S. Gaitonde: Painting
as Process, Painting as Life, New York, 2014, p. 21)