Gaitonde at the Guggenheim

V. S. Gaitonde, Untitled, 1969, Oil on canvas, 59 7/8 x 39 7/8 inches (152.1 x 101.3 cm), Private collection, © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York. Photo: Lee Ewing

There’s no shortage of information about contemporary art from Asia in the Western art world these days. A broad spectrum of work by current Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, and Pakistani practitioners is frequently shown in museums and commercial galleries and often appears at well-publicized auctions. It’s easy, too, to see prime examples of Asian art of the past, if we wish to learn something about the historical aesthetic traditions of the East; all we have to do is visit the right museum collections. Yet knowing something of...