Had VS Gaitonde been
alive today, the fact that his landscape sold for a whopping Rs 23.7 crores at the Christie's auction wouldn't have mattered to him in the slightest, said artist Prabhakar Kolte. "He knew the difference between price and value. He would rather have asked 'But did you understand the painting? Did you like it?'"
Kolte's recollections of the Padma Shri awardee, on whom he has written extensively, are of an introspective artist, who walked a path distinct from his contemporaries. "There is so much I have imbibed just from sitting with him," he said. "Gaitonde's paintings don't speak to you. Rather, you just look at them and they look back at you."
While many considered Gaitonde reclusive, Kolte maintained that people tended to mistake 'alone' for 'lonely'. "Back in the day, just catching a glimpse of Gaitonde was an experience in itself," he added. "Even the way he dressed, the way he cut his hair... He was barely five feet tall but we all thought he looked majestic."
Such other memories and impressions of Gaitonde, from his family, friends and students, are part of an upcoming book, compiled by magazine editor and former artist Satish Naik. From the time he was first entranced by a Gaitonde canvas in art school four decades ago, Naik has followed the painter's life and work through first-person accounts, newspaper clippings, and shows across the city's galleries. This near-obsession culminates in a massive hardbound book, titled simply Gaitonde, expected to be out early next year.
The book includes features by artists like Kolte, and Laxman Shreshtha who considered the veteran his guru. Gaitonde's youngest sister, Kishori Das, too put her memories of growing up with him on paper, as did gallerist Dadiba Pundole, to whom Gaitonde had given many of his works. Articles that had previously appeared in Chinha, the annual art magazine Naik edits, are also part of the book. The first edition is in Marathi, and there are plans to translate it into English.
The task of putting the tome together took almost seven years. Some contributors dropped out at the last minute, while others took months to track down. When Naik went looking for Kishori Das's home at Kudaldeshkar Wadi in Girgaum, a suspicious resident of the chawl fibbed that she was out of town. "Every time we went to meet her, this other lady kept telling us that she has gone to the US, or is out of Mumbai," he said. "When we were finally able to meet Gaitonde's sister after almost a year, she said she had never left town!"
With the artists though, Naik added, there was never a problem. Writings on what Gaitonde meant to them as a peer, a teacher or simply a friend, poured in.
"He definitely didn't like to be disturbed," said director Sunil Kaldate, laughing. Kaldate, who wrote about the 1995 film he had made on Gaitonde, recalled the regimented fashion in which the shoot progressed. "It was a silent film because Gaitonde said that he did not want to speak on camera, nor did he want his daily routine hindered," he said. "That was his strict instruction to us." Any retakes for the movie, which is currently being restored, had to be slotted for the next day.
The act of creating art acquired new meaning in the later years of Gaitonde's life. "Someone once asked him if he missed painting," said Kolte. "He answered that he didn't need a canvas or brushes to paint anymore. It had become much more than just a physical activity for him."
