Hari Ambadas Gade
Rock Lifes 1949 Oil on canvas 21 1/2 x 17 3/4 in
Having trained as a mathematician and scientist, Hari Ambadas Gade joined the Nagpur University of Art where he met fellow artist and lifelong friend, S.H. Raza. Preoccupied by the depiction of houses, Gade's works employed his scientific background to create structured, geometrical landscapes—recalling the works of the cubist masters before him.
One of the founding members of the Progressive Artists Group along with Raza, Francis Newton Souza, M.F. Husain, K.H. Ara and others, Gade ultimately became the secretary for the group until it was dissolved in 1954. He was also one of the founding members of the Bombay Group, which included K.K. Hebbar and Bal Chhabda.
Gade was born in Maharashtra, India, and enrolled part-time at Nagpur School of Art while completing his Bachelor of Science at Nagpur University. He finally received a diploma in fine arts from the latter in 1949, and an MFA in 1950. In the art career that followed, his work was shown nationally and internationally, most notably in the Inaugural Exhibition of the Progressive Artists Group in Mumbai, at the Salon De Mai in Paris (1949), the 57th Venice Biennale (1954); and in the inaugural exhibition at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Mumbai.
He received numerous awards throughout his lifetime, including a Silver Medal from the Bombay Art Society in 1948 and a Gold Medal in 1956. In 1962 he was honored at the Saigon Biennial. He died in 2001. courtesy of saffronart.com, artist.christies.com, invaluable.com