Sayed Haider Raza

Acrylic on canvas

Acquired directly from the artist's gallery in Paris, 1986

A. Vajpeyi, A life in Art - S.H. Raza, Art Alive Gallery, New Delhi, 2007, illustrated p. 123. 

There is a minor scuff and light craquelure visible about 5 inches above the signature. Light accretions and surface irregularities are visible under very close scrutiny. This painting is in very good overall condition, as viewed.
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Executed in vibrant tones of yellow, crimson, green, black, and brown, the colours of the India of Raza’s childhood, the present lot was painted during the phase when Raza was on the cusp of transitioning from abstract expressionism to rigid geometric compositions that were dominated by colour. In the present lot, framed by two horizontal bands of solid colour, one can observe the emergence of the ubiquitous mystical symbols that become the central theme of Raza’s later work.

The composition of this painting is reminiscent of that of Indian miniature paintings, a style that Raza appeared to have initially rejected in favour of the western painting styles that influenced him during the early 1950s when he lived and worked in Paris. Raza alludes to Tantric symbolism with the portrayal of the ‘Naga’ or serpent, revered as an ancient symbol of fertility. “…sometime between 1975 and 1980, I began to feel the draw to my Indian heritage. I thought: I come from India. I have a different vision; I should incorporate what I have learned in France with Indian concepts. In this period, I visited India every year to study Indian philosophy, iconography, magic diagrams, and ancient Indian art, particularly Hindu, Buddhist and Jain art. I was impressed by paintings from Basholi, Malwa and Mewar, and began combining colors in a manner that echoed Indian miniature painting.” (Raza in conversation with Amrita Jhaveri, Sotheby's Preview Magazine, March/April 2007, p. 57)

Raza is said to have spent much of his childhood being close to nature, his father was a forest warden who was stationed in the thick jungles of central India in the 1930s, and this influenced Raza deeply. The colours in Raza’s paintings represent the various hues of the forests he grew up around. “The most tenacious memory of my childhood is the near fascination of the Indian forest. We lived near the source of the Narmada river in the centre of the dense forests of Madhya Pradesh. Nights in the forest were hallucinating; sometimes the only humanizing influence was the dancing of the Gond tribes. Daybreak brought back a sentiment of security and well-being. On market day, under the radiant sun, the village was a fairyland of colours. And then, the night again. Even today I find that these two aspects of my life dominate me and are an integral part of my painting…” (Artist in conversation with Jacques Lassaigne, G. Sen, Bindu, Space and Time in Raza's Vision, Media Transasia, New Delhi, 1997, p. 88).