Syed Haider Raza (b. 1922)

Upon his arrival in France in 1950, Raza was deeply influenced by the works of Modernist masters, especially Cézanne and Van Gogh and his paintings over the next decade echo the structure and formalism of both these artists. Raza combined these impulses to forge a unique idiom where space and color seem to move and feed into each other. He turned for inspiration to the French countryside  to Provence and the Maritime Alps where '… the landscape with its trees, mountains, villages and churches became his staple diet.' (Dalmia, 2001, p. 152)