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Lot Essay
Shanti Dave emerged as a significant figure in modern Indian art following the country’s independence in 1947. Born in 1931 in Gujarat, he was part of a generation of artists who forged a distinctly Indian modernism, drawing on both indigenous philosophies and global aesthetic developments. By the 1970s, Dave had developed a recognizable style of layered, luminous compositions that resonated with sound and movement, and came to be known for this unique abstract vocabulary, rooted in spiritual inquiry and formal experimentation.
Although Dave rejected conventional subject matter, eschewing figures, landscapes or still life compositions after the earliest phase of his work, his abstraction was not derived from visual minimalism. Instead, it emerged from a more synesthetic source, drawing inspiration from emotion and sound, which led him to explore color as an important formal element of his compositions.
In the present lot, painted in 1961, the surface of the canvas transforms into a field of energy with multiple layers and shifting textures, exemplifying Dave’s idiom of the time. Here, the artist uses shades of green interspersed with earthy tones to create an atmospheric field richly layered with color. On this textured plane, darker shapes in deep green and smoky grey appear to be drawn to the surface, creating gentle contrasts in depth and tone. The kaleidoscopic forms here, rendered with thick brushstrokes and imbued with a sense of motion, seem to hover between presence and absence evoking a quiet intensity. The composition of this lot adheres to that recognizable aspect of Dave’s oeuvre where form is felt as much as seen, and color is experienced as vibration. Curator Jesal Thacker notes that in the artist’s works, “Light was transformed into a material performativity, led by the synthesis of technique and chance, creating textural tensions and acoustic impressions” (J. Thacker ed., Neither Earth Nor Sky, New Delhi, 2023, p. 23).
For Dave, the act of painting was a form of meditation and an attempt to give shape to the invisible vibrations of sound and light. He viewed creativity as “a consistent and persistent exploration of the word, or akshara, which he perceived to be the source of all creation” (J. Thacker ed., Ibid, p. 32). This spiritual inquiry, paired with his technical mastery, positions Dave as a modernist who transformed the canvas into a space of quiet resonance and profound reflection.
Although Dave rejected conventional subject matter, eschewing figures, landscapes or still life compositions after the earliest phase of his work, his abstraction was not derived from visual minimalism. Instead, it emerged from a more synesthetic source, drawing inspiration from emotion and sound, which led him to explore color as an important formal element of his compositions.
In the present lot, painted in 1961, the surface of the canvas transforms into a field of energy with multiple layers and shifting textures, exemplifying Dave’s idiom of the time. Here, the artist uses shades of green interspersed with earthy tones to create an atmospheric field richly layered with color. On this textured plane, darker shapes in deep green and smoky grey appear to be drawn to the surface, creating gentle contrasts in depth and tone. The kaleidoscopic forms here, rendered with thick brushstrokes and imbued with a sense of motion, seem to hover between presence and absence evoking a quiet intensity. The composition of this lot adheres to that recognizable aspect of Dave’s oeuvre where form is felt as much as seen, and color is experienced as vibration. Curator Jesal Thacker notes that in the artist’s works, “Light was transformed into a material performativity, led by the synthesis of technique and chance, creating textural tensions and acoustic impressions” (J. Thacker ed., Neither Earth Nor Sky, New Delhi, 2023, p. 23).
For Dave, the act of painting was a form of meditation and an attempt to give shape to the invisible vibrations of sound and light. He viewed creativity as “a consistent and persistent exploration of the word, or akshara, which he perceived to be the source of all creation” (J. Thacker ed., Ibid, p. 32). This spiritual inquiry, paired with his technical mastery, positions Dave as a modernist who transformed the canvas into a space of quiet resonance and profound reflection.