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Saffronart | Evening Sale
Gaitonde and Ara
Image courtesy of Ruxana Pathan
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Architect, educator and author, Narendra Dengle and
Gaitonde developed a friendship in Delhi in the 1970s,
and shared an interest in literature and the philosophy of
J Krishnamurti. In a Marathi essay (
Ruchi
, January 1988)
Dengle writes:
“Gaitonde’s painting is a rhythmic dance that the colours
perform around each other to discover themselves. It has
to be called a dance because of the rhythmic movement
of his paintings. It is the same painting that sometimes
suddenly turns inward to examine itself in utmost peace...
Even after the first encounter, the painting possesses a
capacity to have a personal communication with the
viewer. One is compelled to see these paintings over and
over againand revel in thewaves of experience that rise and
fall within one’s minds. They are emblems of timelessness.”
(translated from his original Marathi essay as “Gaitonde –
A Painter” in
An Un-Stretched Canvas (English)
, Mumbai:
Bodhana Arts and Research Foundation, 2014)
Reflecting recently on the present lot, he writes, “Through
the various phases that Gaitonde’s painting traverses in
his lifetime there comes a discovery of apparitions in the
landscape. Faces and reflections are caught as if these
have something in common with perceiving the play
of light and movement within oneself. Monochrome
and balance gain critical significance in a minimalist
expression, as gradually these too would soon alter their
interrelationship in experiencing purity of space where
form and space resonate with one another leaving traces
of memory into a zone of silence.”
Inscription on reverse of painting