Lot 122
  • 122

Syed Haider Raza (b. 1922)

Estimate
120,000 - 180,000 USD
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Description

  • Syed Haider Raza
  • Fertilité
  • Signed and dated 'RAZA 88' lower left and inscribed 'RAZA/ 1988/ Acrylique sur toile/ 80 x 80 cms/ "FERTILITE"' on reverse
  • Acrylic on canvas
  • 31 1/2 by 31 1/2 in. (80 by 80 cm.)

Catalogue Note

'Raza's continuing concern has been with Nature: with the elements of nature which govern Time and Space and infuse order into the universe.  To express this concept, he resorts to the principles which govern pictorial language and which, in their turn, infuse order into the canvas.  The vocabulary of the point, line and diagonal, of the square, circle and triangle become the essential components of his work - as much as they have always remained the principles used by traditional shilpins when commencing their work.  In both Raza's vision and those of the shilpins, the purpose is much the same: to explore the forces that control the sacred order in the universe, and to express these forces.

Representations of these Elements is symbolic; all directions, all lines and forms have a particular meaning or value.  They coalesce into a single entity like a graph that can be directly apprehended by the inner vision - for transmitting that which cannot be directly seen by the naked eye.  By arriving at the same means by which to express the Elements, Raza has resorted to primordial forms which have been in use in India and elsewhere for centuries.  Their significance and meaning is universal, although as we have seen, variations exist for abstracting the elemental forces.' (Geeti Sen, Bindu, Space and Time in Raza’s Vision, 1997, p. 137).