Syed Haider Raza (b. 1922)

Procter and Gamble Collection, Mumbai
Christie's New York, 17 September 2003, lot 143

                               

Canvas appears to be in good overall condition. Colors of original slightly brighter than catalogue illustration.
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In 1962 Raza moved to America to teach and during this period he came into contact with the New York School whose founding members included William De Kooning, Hans Hoffmann, Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock. Raza could not have remained unaffected by this revolution of the last days of the New York School and the innovators of gestural expressionism like Hoffman held principles that would have appealed to Raza's own sensibility. Unlike De Kooning who felt that painting should be rooted in the experience of the moment, Hofmann believed that there were universal laws that governed both the natural world and art.  For Hofmann painting created a two dimensional 'spiritual reality.' Hofmann's views relating to the spiritual in art and the mystical quality of color share remarkable affinities to Raza's own artistic viewpoint and it seems inconceivable that Raza would not have been aware of these similarities.  Like Hofmann's works of this period Raza's paintings lose all  formal construction or sense of spatial recession which allowed the artist greater autonomy over the pictorial space allowing him to experiment in new ways. Furthermore Raza's move to a less structured composition coincides with a change of medium from oil to acrylic which allowed him a greater freedom of expression, the medium itself allowing a less self conscious application of paint to the canvas and this approach results in more abstract yet fluid works.

The current work, painted in 1972, a decade after Raza's move to purer forms of abstraction represents the culmination of this period of experimentation. These abstract creations are no longer inspired by the French countryside but instead represent a visual expression of childhood memories of India a 'certain climate of experience.'  The relationships of colors, the tonal quality of paint and the process of paint application assume central importance in his work. ' What is created in Raza's fragmentation of forms are analogies – not the outward manifestations of reality as in the earliest works, or the imaginary landscapes in his early gouaches – but the 'real' thing, through the substantial realm of color.  There is vigor here and there is an irrepressible rhythm; but it is no longer nature as 'seen' or as 'constructed', but nature as experienced.' (Geeti Sen, Bindu, Space and Time in Raza's Vision, New Delhi, 1997, p. 79).  In artistic terms this period of experimentation for Raza is not revolutionary for it reflects the mood of the times and the freedom of expression experienced by artists in America, Europe and further East, but Raza's experiences of India and his awareness of the Indian landscape and in particular the Indian classical tradition of representing it as presented by the miniature schools of Basholi, Malwa, Mewar and Mandi  allow him an unique way of expressing this new found freedom.

'The most tenacious memory of my childhood is the fear and fascination of the Indian forest. We lived near the source of the Narmada river in the centre of the densest forests of Madhya Pradesh. Nights in the forest were hallucinatory; sometimes the only humanizing influence was the dancing of the Gond tribes. Day break brought back a sentiment of security and well-being. On the 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...' (ibid.)