Art by masters from India, South Asia up for auction in London

A series of six works by modern artist V S Gaitonde, is among 45 artworks set to go under the hammer at Bonhams Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art sale on June 11 in London.
The six ink on paper drawings (estimated between 20,000-35,000 pounds each) were acquired directly from the artist by American abstract painter Morris Graves, who visited Gaitonde's studio in 1963, auctioneers said in a statement.
Excited by the works, Graves sent an aerogram that same day to Dan and Mariam Johnson of the Willard Gallery in New York. "One of the finest painters I have ever seen," Graves wrote of Gaitonde.

"He is 100 per cent artist - a great and sincere...He is an abstract painter with something unspeakably beautiful and clean added. They are the most beautiful landscapes of the mind plus light..." he wrote.
Gaitonde, who produced perhaps six paintings a year, is known for his non-representational works. This series of drawings, up for auction is part of the same set as a collection in the National Gallery of Modern Art here and marks a critical turn in Gaitonde's career, auctioneers said.
In 1961, Gaitonde abandoned figuration, adopting the use of rollers and ink and the use of a monochrome palette, exemplified in the series.

After finding a book on Zen Buddhism in a bookstore in 1959 in Mumbai, Gaitonde began to incorporate the philosophy, as well as the practice of calligraphy, into his work.

These influences come through in the works, where the roller and brush strokes act as record of a personal meditative process.
After Graves' introduction, Gaitonde was exhibited solo at the Willard Gallery in New York, which represented Graves and Mark Tobey, who both also studied Zen.
Gaitonde has been compared to Rothko, whom he visited in the early 60s with Krishen Khanna, a fellow member of the Progressive Artist Group, whose work also appears in the sale, estimated at 15,000 pounds to 20,000 pounds.

Last year, Gaitonde was the subject of a solo retrospective at the Guggenheim in New York. Two oil paintings that Graves purchased along with the six drawings were sold at Bonhams New York in 2014 (Untitled 1961 for USD 1,068,000 and Untitled 1963 for USD 1.2 million).
Meanwhile, the upcoming sale feature prominent Pakistani artists Abdur Rahman Chughtai (estimated at 20,000 pounds to 30,000 pounds) Sadequain (estimated at 7,000 pounds to 9,000 pounds), and Rashid Rana (estimated at 30-50,000 pounds), who is currently showcasing his work at the 2015 Venice Biennale.