Vasudeo S. Gaitonde

One of India’s most influential modernists, Vasudeo S. Gaitonde was at the forefront of the abstract painting movement in his native country; his work has drawn international acclaim since his death in 2001. Gaitonde was a member of the Bombay Progressive Artists’ Group, which pushed against folk art traditions. He participated in the Venice Biennale in 1954 and 1962 but, in part due to his reclusive nature, received his first museum survey only in 2014 —a posthumous retrospective at the Guggenheim. Inspired by Zen philosophy, his sublime works have since sold for seven figures, with an untitled canvas from 1961 selling for $5.5 million in 2021. His paintings reflect the multicultural vision that Gaitonde developed in the 1960s, when he received a Rockefeller Foundation grant that brought him to New York City. There, Abstract Expressionism and Mark Rothko’s color field painting left indelible marks on the artist, leading him to create monochromatic paintings wholly of his own mind.