India, Nov. 14 -- Since childhood, I have felt drawn to images, lines, forms and colours. They spoke to me in ways words never could. I remember the world through what I see - shapes before sounds, colours before language. Gopi Gajwani's abstract works resonate with me for this very reason.

Gajwani's compositions look restrained at first. But to those examining them closely, there's vibrant buoyancy. Dots, strokes and negative spaces become instruments of rhythm and stillness. Gajwani, who was born in pre-Partition Sindh in 1938, never imagined that art would be his life's calling.

He wasn't studious, and enrolled himself in the Delhi College of Arts, from where he graduated with a degree in Applied Arts. He had a great sense of figurat...