Footnotes

Provenance
Property from a private collection, India.

Patel was one of India's most radical and pioneering abstract artists, whose bold, minimalist aesthetic challenged traditional notions of Indian art in the post-independence era. Born in the small town of Sojitra in Gujarat, Patel studied drawing and painting at Sir J. J. School of Art in Mumbai (1950-55), and later pursued typography and publicity design at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London (1957-59). This dual education, rooted in both Indian and international modernist traditions shaped his distinct artistic vision.

Patel rose to prominence in the 1960s as a founding member of Group 1890, an avant-garde collective of artists that rejected the narrative and decorative modes then prevalent in Indian modern art. He became known for his intense engagement with abstraction, not as a stylistic choice, but as a philosophical and material investigation. In particular, his black-on-white paintings, created using acrylics and sometimes blowtorches on plywood, became his signature mode of expression. These stark compositions, often featuring dense black forms - irregular, explosive, or quietly meditative emerged from his fascination with the metaphysical and the elemental.

In these works such as Untitled, black is never merely a colour; it is an event, a gesture, a force. Against a white background, his black forms pulse with ambiguity and energy. They refuse figurative interpretation, instead evoking psychological and spatial depth. Patel's abstractions are intensely personal, often described as visual manifestations of silence, emptiness, and inward tension. His paintings challenge viewers to abandon narrative and enter a space of raw experience. The black form becomes a vehicle for introspection, challenging the viewer to confront the power of absence, silence, and the unnameable. With no discernible narrative or representational reference, Patel shifts the focus inward, privileging sensation over story, and presence over depiction.