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Journalism of Courage
On February 24, an untitled painting from 1969 by VS Gaitonde went under the hammer for Rs 42 crore at an auction by Pundole’s in Mumbai. This is the highest price that an Indian modern or contemporary artwork has been sold internationally at an auction. Gaitonde has consistently broken records in recent years, selling for the highest prices in auctions annually.
This was the first time that this particular oil on canvas by Gaitonde was coming into the auction market. It belongs to the Glenbarra Art Museum in Japan, which houses the private collection of businessman Masanori Fukuoka. Gaitonde painted a limited number of canvases during his lifetime, which makes each one a coveted lot in auctions.
Beyond the art markets, Gaitonde’s works have often been called luminous, sonorous, sublime and calming by art critics. It is said that a Gaitonde work is not seen but “experienced”. The same applies to the present bluish painting with amorphous forms, which recall expanses of the sky or sea.
Mamta Saran writes that Gaitonde once said that the only thing he planned in his life was joining art school, everything else was by accident, including finding a book on Zen Buddhism at a bookstore in Mumbai in 1959. This was a watershed moment in the artist’s career. The discovery of Zen Buddhism would greatly alter his approach to art, making it shift from figuration and geometric shapes to abstraction.
Saran writes that in Gaitonde’s “Landscapes of the Mind”, “the vibrant colours, heavy impasto, and rigorous geometry of the late ’50s now gave way to contemplative works of the highest quality”. “The compositions are of utmost simplicity and the palette is derived from nature. Veils of overlapping colour irradiate the canvas creating an illusion of endless space — and mystery hangs in the air.”
Gaitonde’s last figurative work was titled Bird, painted in 1961, after which he only continued with abstraction. He would work extensively with a paint roller and palette knife henceforth.
Currently, Gaitonde dominates the list of top ten Indian modern or contemporary artworks. He has found great international appeal for the subdued quality of his works and the illusion of making complex techniques seem simple. The luminous quality, that is often ascribed to his works, derives from applying multiple, translucent layers of paint — imagine layering fine muslin on top of each other. All the highest-selling works by Gaitonde use this technique.
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