Sayed Haider Raza (b.1922)

Sotheby's, New York, March 19, 2008, lot 27

Thick application of paint with knife. A few vertical cracks in white in lower central area of painting, and a few center right. Slightly craquelure and paint shrinkage in a few areas. Painting appears stable. Colors similar to catalogue illustration.
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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 of 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 to the Maritime Alps, where "... the landscape with its trees, mountains, villages and churches became his staple diet." (Yashodhara Dalmia, The Making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives, New Delhi, 2001, p.152) In the early years in France, Raza painted the landscapes of Europe in semi-abstracted forms, but with identifiable architectural features that provide a constant link to human activity. As his works progress, these identifiable elements disappear.  

The 1960's marked a shift in Raza's painting toward a more pure abstract style. His travel to American and his encounter with Abstract Expressionism there in 1962 (the year of the current work) and his change of preferred medium from oil to acrylic allowed him greater freedom in the application of paint, resulting in the creation of more abstract yet fluid works. In 1962, Raza also visited America, and the same year marked the shift from oil to acrylic. The current work therefore possibly represents one of the last paintings produced in oil before this transition took place. Although Route de Chomerac was likely to have been painted in America, the title reveals that the mountain villages of southern France remained his inspiration for the work. "Be it village, town or church, the world according to Raza was aflame. It was being forged anew through the crucible of recollection – baptized through fire." (Geeti Sen, Bindu, Space and Time in Raza's Vision, New Delhi, 1997, p.66)  

In the artist's own words, "... as a painter, I have to realize the ideas, the moods, the sentiments, in a visual language of form and color. A painting has to be seen and to be felt – through all the senses." (Ibid., p.148