Skip to main content
TRIS logo image
V.S. Gaitonde — featured artwork

Introduction

Date of Birth
02 Nov 1924
Date of Death
10 Aug 2001
Age
76
Place of Birth
Nagpur, Maharashtra, India
State Country of Birth
Maharashtra, India

Exhibitions

  1. 1948

    1. Diamond Jubilee Exhibition, Bombay Art Society, Mumbai, India
  2. 1949

    1. 59th Annual Exhibition, Bombay Art Society, Mumbai, India
  3. 1950

    1. 60th Annual Exhibition, Bombay Art Society, Mumbai, India
  4. 1951

    1. Progressive Artists' Group, Exhibition of Paintings, Bombay Art Society, Mumbai, India

      06 Sep 1951 to 12 Sep 1951

    2. Various Exhibitions in Artists Aid Centre, Mumbai, India
  5. 1952

    1. 61st Annual Exhibition, Jehangir Art Gallery inaugural exhibition, Presented by Bombay Art Society, Mumbai, India
    2. 3rd 'Progressive Artists' Group Exhibition, Bombay Art Society, Mumbai, India
  6. 1953

    1. Progressive Artists Group, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, India
  7. 1954

    1. Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy

      19 Jun 1954 to 17 Oct 1954

  8. 1955

    1. Indian Art Exhibition, Organised by Lalit Kala Akademi, Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi, India
  9. 1956

    1. Eight Painters, Indian Cooperative Uion, New Delhi, India

      17 Nov 1956 to 25 Nov 1956

    2. National Exhibition of Art, Lalit Kala Akademi, Rabindra Bhavan, India)

      15 Jan 1956

  10. 1957

    1. Five Thousand Years of Indian Art, Essen, Germany
    2. 1st Young Asian Artist Exhibition, Tokyo Department Store, Japan
  11. 1959

    1. Kumar Gallery, New Delhi, India
    2. Graham Gallery, New York, USA
    3. Inaugural Exhibition, Gallery 59, Mumbai, India

      26 Jan 1959

    4. Trends in Contemporary Paintings from India, American Federation of Arts, New York, USA (March 1959 - March 1960)
    5. Indian Art Today, Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany

      15 May 1959 to 16 Jul 1959

    6. Trends in Contemporary Paintings from India, Graham Gallery, New York, U.S.A.

      10 Feb 1959 to 26 Feb 1959

20 of 198

Chronicled Highlights 531961 – 2023

V.S. Gaitonde was born in 1924 in Nagpur, Maharashtra, India.

1961
Public Auction HighPainting
Saffronart · Spring Live Auction: Modern Indian ArtMumbai · 11 March 2021

In 2021, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of Untitled (1961), offered in the Spring Live Auction: Modern Indian Art by Saffronart, which concluded on 11 March 2021 at Mumbai, achieving a sale price of ₹39,98,00,000 ($5,552,778). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.

Gaitonde, V.S. (Artist). Untitled, 1961 | Painting
Selling price
INR39,98,00,000
14% above high estimate
Estimate
INR 25,00,00,000 – 35,00,00,000
Rate per sq in
INR 1,00,048
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
50 × 79.9 in (127 × 203 cm)
Lot
13 · Sa.Mum/11.03.21
1962
Literary Reference & Public Auction HighPainting
Sotheby's · Indian and Southeast Asian Art: Including Modern Indian Paintings from The Wilberding CollectionNew York · 20 September 2005
When the twentieth century is viewed through the psycho geography of a series of shifting and overlapping tectonic plates - through the modernism, decades of decolonisation and nationalism, postmodernism, decades of decolonialism, and post colonialism, and the intercultural dialogues between Asian, European and American Artists, intellectuals and cultural agents- what emerges is the story of several simultaneously evolving histories, or what I have termed for the purposes of this essay a system of “polymorphic modernisms.” As critic Geeta Kapur states, “it may be worth mentioning that modernism as it develops in postcolonial cultures has the oldest retroactive trajectories, and that these make up a parallel aesthetics. It is crucial that we do not see the modern as a form of determinism to be followed, in a manner of the stations of a cross, to a logical end. We should see our trajectories crisscrossing the western mainstream and, in their very disalignment from it, making up the ground that restructures the international.” With Fredric Jameson in mind Kapur continues, “the modern itself had a politicality far greater than we are taught to recognize. He (Jameson) notes the persistent use of vocabulary of political revolution in the aesthetic avant-gardes which complemented, perhaps even compensated for, the deep subjectivity to which modernist works were committed” Gaitonde’s consistently nonrepresentational works from 1959 onwards resist any intrinsic meaning or description and must be dealt with on their own uncompromised terms. One should experience them ontologically rather than in epistemic terms, given their resistance to narrativity. This, however, does not make them unmoored, universalising agentsrather they exist in time, and are contingent on the socialising factors that make them modern. One may simply point to the oeuvre of Kazimir Malevich (1879-1935), whose utopian abstraction and belief in the “zero of painting” or “objectlessness emerged within a milieu of revolutionary socialism.

In 2005, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of Untitled (1962), offered in the Indian and Southeast Asian Art: Including Modern Indian Paintings from The Wilberding Collection by Sotheby's, which concluded on 20 September 2005 at New York, achieving a sale price of ₹1,05,38,400 ($240,000). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.
Gaitonde, V.S. (Artist). Untitled, 1962 | Painting
Selling price
INR1,05,38,400
20% above high estimate
Estimate
INR 65,86,500 – 87,82,000
Rate per sq in
INR 7,026
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
30 × 50 in (76 × 127 cm)
Lot
209 · So.NeY/20.09.05
1969
Public Auction HighPainting
Pundole · Glenbarra: A Lasting Legacy Session 1Mumbai · 24 February 2022

In 2022, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of Untitled (1969), offered in the Glenbarra: A Lasting Legacy Session 1 by Pundole, which concluded on 24 February 2022 at Mumbai, achieving a sale price of ₹42,00,00,000 ($5,578,859.84). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.

Gaitonde, V.S. (Artist). Untitled, 1969 | Painting
Selling price
INR42,00,00,000
Within estimate
Estimate
INR 30,00,00,000 – 50,00,00,000
Rate per sq in
INR 1,19,933
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
70 × 50 in (178 × 127 cm)
Lot
13 · Pu.Mum/24.02.22
1970
Public Auction HighPainting
Christie's · Indian and Southeast Asian Art: Including 20th Century Indian PaintingsNew York · 17 October 2001

In 2001, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of Untitled (1970), offered in the Indian and Southeast Asian Art: Including 20th Century Indian Paintings by Christie's, which concluded on 17 October 2001 at New York, achieving a sale price of ₹25,37,471 ($52,875). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.

Gaitonde, V.S. (Artist). Untitled, 1970 | Painting
Selling price
INR25,37,471
194% above high estimate
Estimate
INR 5,75,880 – 8,63,820
Rate per sq in
INR 1,450
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
50 × 35 in (127 × 89 cm)
Lot
229 · Ch.NeY/17.10.01
1972
Public Auction HighPainting
Osian's · Indian Contemporary Art: Paintings, Drawings & SculptureMumbai · 09 February 2005

In 2005, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of Untitled (1972), offered in the Indian Contemporary Art: Paintings, Drawings & Sculpture by Osian's, which concluded on 09 February 2005 at Mumbai, achieving a sale price of ₹92,00,000 ($210,816). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.

Gaitonde, V.S. (Artist). Untitled, 1972 | Painting
Selling price
INR92,00,000
15% above high estimate
Estimate
INR 65,00,000 – 80,00,000
Rate per sq in
INR 3,302
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
70.1 × 39.8 in (178 × 101 cm)
Lot
24 · Os.Mum/09.02.05
1973
Public Auction HighPainting
Osian's · Masterpieces & Museum Quality Series VI: With Rare Drawings and Books on Indian Contemporary ArtNew Delhi · 01 March 2006

In 2006, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of Untitled (1973), offered in the Masterpieces & Museum Quality Series VI: With Rare Drawings and Books on Indian Contemporary Art by Osian's, which concluded on 01 March 2006 at New Delhi, achieving a sale price of ₹4,88,75,000 ($1,102,029). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.

Gaitonde, V.S. (Artist). Untitled, 1973 | Painting
Selling price
INR4,88,75,000
172% above high estimate
Estimate
INR 1,20,00,000 – 1,80,00,000
Rate per sq in
INR 20,486
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
60 × 39.8 in (152 × 101 cm)
Lot
84 · Os.Del/01.03.06
1974
Public Auction HighPainting
Pundole · Looking West: Works from the Collection of the Glenbarra Art Museum, Japan (Session I)Mumbai · 03 September 2020

In 2020, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of Untitled (1974), offered in the Looking West: Works from the Collection of the Glenbarra Art Museum, Japan (Session I) by Pundole, which concluded on 03 September 2020 at Mumbai, achieving a sale price of ₹32,00,00,000 ($4,362,288.02). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.

Gaitonde, V.S. (Artist). Untitled, 1974 | Painting
Selling price
INR32,00,00,000
28% above high estimate
Estimate
INR 15,00,00,000 – 25,00,00,000
Rate per sq in
INR 1,33,246
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
60 × 40 in (153 × 102 cm)
Lot
11 · Pu.Mum/03.09.20
Provenance
From the collection of the Glenbarra Art Museum, Japan
1975
Public Auction HighPainting
Christie's · Modern and Contemporary Indian ArtNew York · 30 March 2006

In 2006, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of Untitled (1975), offered in the Modern and Contemporary Indian Art by Christie's, which concluded on 30 March 2006 at New York, achieving a sale price of ₹6,56,65,920 ($1,472,000). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.

Gaitonde, V.S. (Artist). Untitled, 1975 | Painting
Selling price
INR6,56,65,920
84% above high estimate
Estimate
INR 2,67,66,000 – 3,56,88,000
Rate per sq in
INR 22,025
Medium
Oil and Mixed media on canvas
Dimensions
70.1 × 42.5 in (178 × 108 cm)
Lot
42 · Ch.NeY/30.03.06
1976
Public Auction HighPainting
Christie's · Indian and Southeast Asian Art: Including 20th Century Indian PaintingsNew York · 20 September 2000

In 2000, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of Untitled (1976), offered in the Indian and Southeast Asian Art: Including 20th Century Indian Paintings by Christie's, which concluded on 20 September 2000 at New York, achieving a sale price of ₹14,12,021 ($30,550). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.

Gaitonde, V.S. (Artist). Untitled, 1976 | Painting
Selling price
INR14,12,021
70% above high estimate
Estimate
INR 5,54,640 – 8,31,960
Rate per sq in
INR 707
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
50 × 40 in (127 × 102 cm)
Lot
302 · Ch.NeY/20.09.00
1977
Public Auction HighPainting
Christie's · Indian and Southeast Asian Art: Including 20th Century Indian PaintingsNew York · 19 September 2002

In 2002, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of Untitled (1977), offered in the Indian and Southeast Asian Art: Including 20th Century Indian Paintings by Christie's, which concluded on 19 September 2002 at New York, achieving a sale price of ₹31,82,405 ($65,725). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.

Gaitonde, V.S. (Artist). Untitled, 1977 | Painting
Selling price
INR31,82,405
10% above high estimate
Estimate
INR 19,36,800 – 29,05,200
Rate per sq in
INR 1,699
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
45.3 × 41.3 in (115 × 105 cm)
Lot
296 · Ch.NeY/19.09.02
1979
Public Auction HighPainting
Christie's · South Asian ArtMumbai · 19 December 2013

In 2013, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of Untitled (1979), offered in the South Asian Art by Christie's, which concluded on 19 December 2013 at Mumbai, achieving a sale price of ₹23,70,25,000 ($3,799,695). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.

Gaitonde, V.S. (Artist). Untitled, 1979 | Painting
Selling price
INR23,70,25,000
179% above high estimate
Estimate
INR 6,50,00,000 – 8,50,00,000
Rate per sq in
INR 98,566
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
60.1 × 40 in (153 × 102 cm)
Signature
Signed in Hindi and dated '79' and further s/d 'V. S. GAITONDE '79' (verso)
Lot
63 · Ch.Mum/19.12.13
1980
Literary ReferencePainting
Saffronart · Spring Live Auction: South Asian Modern ArtMumbai · 16 March 2023

Whether it is a mauve canvas with a streak of turquoise blue. or a blue moon, it is always pure painting ‒‒ painting which has detached itself from the world of objects to explore its own endlessly exciting possibilities.

Gaitonde, V.S. (Artist). Untitled, 1980 | Painting
Selling price
INR47,50,00,000
48% above high estimate
Estimate
INR 22,00,00,000 – 32,00,00,000
Rate per sq in
INR 1,88,007
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
64.2 × 39.4 in (163 × 100 cm)
Lot
13 · Sa.Mum/16.03.23
12 of 53

Economics of Art

20 of 50

Research Centre

Related

50