LONDON.- A series of six works by V.S. Gaitonde, one of India’s most important modern artists, will be offered at Bonhams Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art sale on June 11th in London.

The six ink on paper drawings (estimated between £20,000-35,000 each) were acquired directly from the artist by American abstract painter Morris Graves, who visited Gaitonde’s studio in 1963. He was so excited by the works that he 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,’ he wrote of Gaitonde. ‘He is 100 per cent artist – a great & sincere (+ humble - + unconscious gift)…He is an abstract painter with something unspeakably beautiful & clean added. They are the most beautiful landscapes of the mind plus light...’

Gaitonde, who produced perhaps six paintings a year, is known for his non-representational works. This series of drawings, part of the same set as a collection in the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi, marks a critical turn in Gaitonde’s career: in 1961, he abandoned figuration, adopting the use of rollers and ink and the use of a monochrome palette, exemplified in this series.

After finding a book on Zen Buddhism in a Bombay bookstore in 1959, 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, 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 India’s Progressive Artist Group, whose work also appears in the sale, estimated at £15,000-20,000.

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 $1,068,000 and Untitled 1963 for $1.2 million).

The sale will also feature paintings by M.F. Husain (estimated at £40,000-60,000 and £10,000-20,000), who will as well as prominent Pakistani artists Abdur Rahman Chughtai (estimated at £20,000-30,000) Sadequain (estimated at £7,000-9,000), and Rashid Rana (estimated at £30-50,000), who is currently showcasing his work at the 2015 Venice Biennale as part of a joint India-Pakistan pavilion.

Tahmina Ghaffar, newly appointed specialist for Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art, said: ‘There is already great interest, not just in the Gaitonde series, but right across the full spectrum of modern and contemporary artists represented at this auction. Bonhams has had two very successful Indian sales this year and we are looking forward to deepening our engagement with the Indian art scene with what is billed to be one of our most exciting South Asian auctions to date.’

The sale will preview from June 7th to June 10th.