V S Gaitonde (B.1924)

Vasudeo S Gaitonde was born in Maharashtra in 1924 and called his work "non-objective" and believed that "there is no such thing as abstract art." Gaitonde’s paintings, evocative of subliminal depths, are known for their spiritual quality and characteristic silence that is as meditative as it is eternal and momentous. The plain, large surfaces of layered paint possess an inherent quality of light.

Gaitonde was He received a Diploma in Painting from the Sir J J School of Art in 1948, and subsequently joined the Progressive Artists’ Group. Art, for Gaitonde, was a process complete in itself. In exploring his inner spaces and transient realities, it helped him move towards himself. A non-conformist, Gaitonde always kept himself away from anything that would be extraneous to his identity as a painter. Over the years, he evolved as a painter who was increasingly more meticulous in the presentation of his identity. Large, planar surfaces distilled with subtle layers of paint create a meditative calm in Gaitonde's work. His abstract paintings with their translucent beams of light refer to nothing other than themselves and evoke subliminal depths.

Style
″A quiet man and a painter of the quite reaches of the imagination" as one of his admirers once called him, defines Gaitonde best, who has the appearance of an intellectual, literally simmering with some unexplored thought. Conceptually, he never considered himself an abstract painter and is averse to be called one. In fact he asserts that there is no such thing as abstract painting, instead he refers to his work as "non-objective" a kind of personalised hieroglyphics and calligraphic inventions, evoking the surface painted on with the most astounding intuitions, which he has realised in his inevitable meeting, in discovering Zen. The meditative Zen quality that transpires his speech, emoting silence is exemplified in his work best, as silence is eternal and meaningful in itself, from this point one does tend to identify the mysterious motifs, the highly personalised hieroglyphs in Gaitonde's canvasses with the manifestation of intuitions, invested in their His work is influenced by Zen philosophy and ancient calligraphy.