He was regarded as one of India’s most important abstract painters. Born in 1924, Nagpur, Maharashtra. He completed his art diploma at Sir J. J. School of Art in 1948. In 1950, he was invited to join the Bombay Progressive Artists’ Group.
He actively participated in the group’s activities as well as exhibitions in India and abroad. In 1956, he participated in the Indian art exhibition which was held in Eastern European countries. In 1959 and 1963, he participated in the Graham Art gallery, New York. His abstracts works have been in many Indian and overseas collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Gaitonde’s style can be sum into the fact that he works on the space on the canvas. His quiet imagination creates a quiet painting. Conceptually, he never considered himself an abstract artist instead he called his works “non-objective” a kind of work created from the intuitions without thought. His works are considered a representation of Zen.
V. S. Gaitonde was the first Indian contemporary painter whose work was sold for ₹9 million (US$130,000) at a 2005 Osians art auction in Mumbai. In 2014, the first retrospective of his work took place at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, titled V. S. Gaitonde: Painting as Process, Painting as Life.
Vikash Kalra is a self-taught artist and writer based in New Delhi whose work has been exhibited across India and is held in several private and corporate collections.