The low-profile artist Rajendra Dhawan remained true to pure abstraction throughout his life, ‘painting what he sensed’, as artist Prabhakar Kolte has described his practice.
The biggest highlight of Dhawan’s abstractionist language is the seamless blend of muted colours into one another, creating a calming image that evokes a sense of poetry, music or harmony with nature, depending on the personal disposition of the onlooker. Either way, his works have a meditative quality that bring a sense of peace to the viewer’s mind. Just like his colours, his strokes too have a quality of latency or inconspicuousness, blending into each other effortlessly.
The subtle use of colour in strategic places while leaving some areas on the canvas blank was his way of reinventing abstraction and colour-field paintings. The fleeting nature of his method of using colours gave him a distinct style and an essential place amongst his contemporaries.
Born in New Delhi in 1936, Dhawan studied at the Delhi Polytechnic (which was later renamed College of Art) from 1953-58. Soon after, he participated in his first group show at All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society (AIFACS), New Delhi. In 1960, he became co-founder of the group, The Unknown, that lasted for four years. In 1960, he also went to Belgrade in erstwhile Yugoslavia to study art for two years.
Upon his return, he participated in many group shows and held solo shows as well, and started teaching art at a college in Phagwara, Punjab. In 1964, he received a grant to study and practice art in erstwhile Yugoslavia for two years. In 1970, he went to Paris to study at Ecole des Beaux-Arts, and settled in the city for good. He would increasingly become less mobile even though his art continued to find favour with collectors, and solo shows were held by galleries in Delhi. He passed away in Paris on October 31, 2012.