Vasudeo S. Gaitonde received his diploma from the Sir J. J. School of Art, Mumbai, in 1948. He was invited to join the Progressive Artists Group of Bombay and actively participated in its activities. He had several solo exhibitions in India and abroad and participated in group shows like the Indian art exhibition which toured East European countries in 1956 and other group exhibitions at Graham Gallery in New York in 1959 and Gallery 63 in New York in 1963.

One of the India's foremost abstractionist, Gaitonde's works are represented in several Indian and foreign collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York. He was awarded the first prize at the Young Asian Artists Exhibition, Tokyo, in 1957 and the Rockefeller Fellowship in 1964. He was awarded the Padma Shri (the highest award for creative excellence given by the Government of India) in 1971.

Large, planar surfaces distilled with subtle layers of paint create a meditative calm in Gaitonde's work. His abstract paintings with their translucent beams of light refer to nothing other than themselves and evoke subliminal depths.

Gaitonde passed away in 2002.