An Indian Modernist, An Artist Of Mystery
神秘的印度現代主義畫家
By Arthur Lubow

When Sandhini Poddar first saw the paintings of V. S. Gaitonde, their silence spoke loudly. Displayed in a group show in 1997 at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Mumbai, the large abstract canvases, with layered colors and textures, invited long contemplation. “This was a feeling that wasn’t ephemeral, it stayed with me, and I could recall it whenever I wanted to go to a place of silence,” she said.
當桑迪妮．波達第一次看到蓋同德的畫作時，靜默的畫卻如吶喊般充滿力量。這些大幅的抽象帆布畫，1997年在印度孟買國立現代美術館的一場聯展展出，層層堆疊的顏料與紋理，吸引參觀者低迴沉思。她說：「這感覺並非僅僅一日般短暫，它跟著我，無論何時，每當我想置身安靜場所，就會想起它。」

Gaitonde, in his early 70s at the time, was living in a one-room rented apartment in New Delhi. Although fellow artists and knowledgeable collectors admired his work, he remained in the shadows, as he preferred. He had friends but never married. He gave few interviews. “He was a special kind of fellow,” said the New Delhi painter Krishen Khanna, a friend. “He didn’t doubt himself.”
當時蓋同德70歲出頭，住在新德里一處租來的一房公寓。儘管其他畫家及識貨蒐藏家欣賞他的作品，他依舊隨自己的意，保持低調。他有朋友，但從未結婚。他很少受訪。新德里的畫家朋友卡納說：「他是個特別的人，從不懷疑自己。」

By the time Ms. Poddar, 38, adjunct curator at the Guggenheim Museum, was in a position to help raise awareness of Gaitonde’s achievement, the painter, whom she never met, was no longer available to assist her. He died in 2001. Exploring the residual traces of his life, she discovered that he left remarkably little trail. There were no heirs. No one had inventoried his output. In a long career, he produced relatively few paintings. “There’s always been a kind of mystery surrounding the artist,” Ms. Poddar said.
今年38歲的波達現在已是紐約古根漢美術館的副館長，可惜在她具有足以提高蓋同德作品知名度的地位與分量時，這位她從未謀面的藝術家卻已無法助她一臂之力，蓋同德已於2001年去世。在探索蓋同德的人生紀錄時，她發現他留下的蹤跡少得可憐。他沒有繼承人，沒有人詳細記錄他所有的作品。在漫長的藝術生涯中，他的畫作其實不多。波達說：「這位藝術家始終被某種神祕感圍繞。」

As she researched his self-effacing craft, in preparation for a retrospective now open at the Guggenheim, the mysteries of Gaitonde only deepened. His obscurity, however, ended with a dramatic flourish.
為了籌備現正於紐約古根漢舉辦的蓋同德回顧展，波達研究不欲引人注意的這位畫家，發現謎團只會變得更大。然而他沒沒無聞的人生，卻以戲劇性的迸發作結。

Last December in Mumbai, as part of Christie’s first auction in India, a painting by Gaitonde sold for $3.8 million, the highest price ever for a work of modern Indian art. The auction signaled the arrival not only of this singular painter, but also of an entire generation of postwar Indian artists.
去年12月，佳士得首度在印度舉辦拍賣會，蓋同德的一幅畫作以380萬美元售出，創下印度當代藝術品歷來最高價紀錄。這項拍賣顯示，不光是這一位畫家的時代來臨了，對整個戰後世代的印度藝術家而言，亦復如此。

India’s economic growth in the last two decades has made its business class richer, and with it has come an increased interest in India’s art. Almost every work in the sale of Indian modern art fetched a price that was triple its low estimate, said Deepanjana Klein of Christie’s.
印度20年來的經濟成長讓商人階級更富有，對印度藝術的興趣也隨之增加。佳士得的迪帕雅娜．克蘭說，印度當代藝術品拍賣會上，幾乎每件作品的成交價都是預估底價的3倍。

The leading Indian modernist painters belonged to the Progressive Artists Group, a loose clique of painters that formed in 1947 in Bombay (now Mumbai). They borrowed the techniques and formal devices of avant-garde Western painting. However, as has happened over the ages, the imported aesthetic would change as it was synthesized in India.
印度重要的現代派畫家都隸屬「進步藝術家小組」，這是1947年在孟買成立的一個鬆散畫家組織，他們借用前衛西方繪畫的技巧與形式上的方法。只不過隨著時代演進，外來的美學在融入印度的過程中終究會改變。

Gaitonde was raised in Bombay and lived there until his move to New Delhi in 1972. In 1950, he joined the Progressive Artists, painting pictures that were heavily influenced by Paul Klee.
蓋同德在孟買成長和居住，直到1972年才搬到新德里。1950年他加入進步藝術家小組，繪畫風格深受德裔瑞士畫家保羅克利影響。

Gaitonde, interest in Zen Buddhism, gradually eliminated all figurative representation from his work. He used a roller to build up thin washes of color in translucent complexity, and a palette knife to create contrasting patches of thick impasto. In 1964, he moved for a year to New York, where he could view actual paintings by Western artists instead of reproductions.
蓋同德對佛教禪宗頗感興趣，作品中漸漸看不到所有具象的表現手法。他用滾筒塗上薄薄色彩，表現透明的層次感；用調色刀堆砌厚厚顏料，創造對比色塊。1964年，他搬到紐約住了一年，得以親見西方藝術家原作，而非複製畫。

Mr. Khanna went with him to visit Mark Rothko. “We saw Mark doing his big paintings, the black ones,” Mr. Khanna recalled. “We were both suitably impressed – Gaitonde greatly impressed.”
卡納和他一同拜訪畫家馬克．羅斯科，他回想：「我們看到馬克正在繪製大型畫作，黑色系列的。我倆都印象深刻，蓋同德尤其感動。」

Although Gaitonde’s paintings don’t resemble Rothko’s formally, they inspire a similar meditative mood. “When you concentrate on the painting, you are sucked into the painting,” Mr. Khanna said.
儘管蓋同德的畫在形式上和羅斯科並不像，但兩人的作品都能營造類似的沉思冥想氛圍。卡納說：「當你專注凝視畫作時，就會被吸進畫裡。」

In his later years, Gaitonde would apply cutout strips to his canvas and apply his roller over them until they hovered as ghostly forms. He created only a half-dozen of paintings in a year. Although he could be adamant about his pricing – Mr. Khanna remembered once seeing the director of the National Gallery of Modern Art approach Gaitonde to suggest a discount, then walk away quickly in obvious defeat – he showed no interest in material possessions or commercial success.
蓋同德晚年會在帆布上放上布條，用滾筒壓過，層層迴旋，直到形成朦朧的形體。他一年只創作幾幅畫，儘管如此，他對價格卻很固執。卡納憶起曾見到國立現代美術館館長要蓋同德打個折，卻很快就走開了，顯然碰了釘子。蓋同德對於物質財產或商業成功毫無興趣。

“After the work was taken away, he didn’t have any relationship with it,” Sandhini Poddar said. “He went on to the next idea.”
波達說：「作品脫手後，他就不再理它了，他會接著去處理下一個構想。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/19/arts/design/v-s-gaitondes-art-gets-a-guggenheim-retrospective.html

2014-10-28聯合報/G9版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS 莊蕙嘉譯 原文參見紐時週報十二版右