Gade is considered one of the first abstract expressionist painters of post-independence India. Manifestly a landscape painter his contribution in this field is considerable. One of the founders of the progressive art movement in India, he believed in an unconventional and dynamic artistic style. In his paintings, this abject poverty and dirty slums crop up once in a while. Yet, he did not abandon his first love, landscapes, and would travel every few months. From the lush greenery of Kerala, to the stark landscape of Udaipur to the dense forests, his landscapes are highly prized. In the recent past, he did a series on rains and monsoon greens.
H.A Gade was born in Amravati in Maharashtra 1917. He graduated in Science from the University of Nagpur in Maharashtra in 1938. He further secured a Masters in Art from the Nagpur School of Art. Gade was one of the founder members of Progressive Artists Group (1948) and Bombay Artists Group (1958).
Gade first exhibited in Mumbai in 1947, and then in 1948, at the annual exhibition of the Bombay Art Society. In 1949, he was invited to exhibit at the Salon-de-Mai in Paris, and in the same year, he also showed his works at Stanford University. In 1954, Gade's paintings were exhibited at the Venice Biennale. H A Gade passed away in the year 2001
Selected Posthumous Exhibitions
2014 Retrospective Exhibition at Dhoomimal Gallery, New Delhi
2012-13 'Radical Terrain: Modernist Art from India', Rubin Museum of Art, New York
2012 'Crossings: Time Unfolded, Part 2', Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), New Delhi
2011 'Ethos V: Indian Art Through the Lens of History (1900 to 1980), Indigo Blue Art, Singapore
2011 'Masterclass', Dhoomimal Art Gallery, New Delhi
2011 'Continuum', Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
2010 ‘Manifestations IV', Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
2010 'Masters of Maharashtra', collection from Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi at Piramal Gallery, National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Mumbai
2009 'Indian Art After Independence: Selected Works from the Collections of Virginia & Ravi Akhoury and Shelley & Donald Rubin', Emily Lowe Gallery, Hempstead
Selected Exhibitions
1998 The Moderns, Inaugural exhb. National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai
1994 Dhoomimal Art Gallery, New Delhi
1958 'Twenty Artist's', New Delhi
1957 Dhoomimal Art Gallery, New Delhi
1949 Salon de Mai, Paris
1949 Stanford University, USA
1948 Inaugural Exhibition., Progressive Artists Group, Mumbai
1948 Bombay Art Society, Mumbai
Participations
1957,54 Venice Biennale, Italy
1956 Basel
1955-56 'Contemporary Indian Art', travelling exhb. to USSR, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria
1951 Basel
Honours and Awards
1956,55 Member of Artists Delegation, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
1956 Gold Medal in Annual Exhibiiton, Bombay Art Society, Mumbai
1947 Founder Member of Progressive Artists Group
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