The minimalist146;s space

For over two decades now, an uncluttered white room is where Gopi Gajwani8217;s work has found expression

Nothing is out of place in artist Gopi Gajwani8217;s studio. Tubes of paints don8217;t bleed on to tables. Brushes stiff with dried paint don8217;t litter the floor. The walls are spotless, soothing white. The large square room on the second floor of his house in east Delhi is simple but structured. Like his work.

Not that the 69-year-old artist considers a studio very important. 8220;There were days when I didn8217;t have a studio. I painted while sitting on the floor,8221; he says. But since 1983, when he built the house, all of Gajwani8217;s works have been made in this studio.

An invisible line slices the room into two sections, summing up as if in a diptych the stages of his creation. A huge easel with an unfinished canvas in vibrant blue clipped on it, the paint drying, takes up an entire wall. This is the space of creative communion between the artist and his tools, you would think. But as your eyes travel to the other half, they rest on a large drawing desk, placed under a window and lit up by the afternoon sun. This is where Gajwani sits and conceives every work8212;before it takes shapes on the canvas. Sheaves of paper are neatly stacked on it to record every scribble, every frame that he will transfer onto the canvas. 8220;It8217;s silly to think that artists head straight to the canvas and start painting. The canvas is only the final step towards creating a work of art,8221; says the artist who does mainly abstracts. On the desk is also a music system the artist likes to listen to Nat King Cole and Perry Como while working. Pencils are neatly stocked in a pen stand and art books line the wall.

The easel8212; Gajwani designed it himself8212;is easily the most conspicuous item in the room. It takes up the entire eastern wall and is equipped with screws and ledges so that a canvas of any size can be fitted in. 8220;I8217;ve placed the easel on the east wall so that there are no shadows of my hand on the canvas while I paint,8221; says Gajwani, who works steadily from 10 in the morning every day till sunset. At the front is a table on which are his neatly arranged brushes. Another makes up for an entire palette, colour splotched and vibrant. His old canvases are propped against the walls, looking inwards.

In two decades, a lot has changed around Gajwani8217;s creative space. He recalls how the empty land around the house has been slowly gobbled up by squat blocks of concrete. 8220;But none of these matters. Once I am in this room, the rest of the world is simply shut out.8221;