New Delhi, Feb. 5 -- For a brief period in the 1970s, a young Gwalior artist called Vijay Mohite(1940-2002) exhibited a series of dense, spirited abstract paintings in three cities. With their bold expanses of colour and kinetic lines that made the surface resonate, his works vibrate like songful gestalts. Contemplating them in 1972, artist J. Swaminathan described the effect as an "inexorable pulsation".

Part of a moment when the abstract idiom was flourishing in India, Mohite's expressive play of forms and space impart a distinct character to his practice. Yet, just as his art was gaining public recognition, he chose to withdraw it from public display.

Born into an aristocratic family in 1940, Mohite took up the paintbrush at a remark...