Sayed Haider Raza

Acquired by a private Dutch collector from Gallery Lara Vincy in Paris circa 1968
The collector was a prominent American psychoanalyst living in Amsterdam, who was enchanted by Raza's work and kept the painting for many years in his office and home,
Thence by descent

This work is in good condition, as viewed.
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This remarkable painting was produced during an important transitional period in Raza's career following the artist's visit to America. Whilst there he came into contact the New York school of painters and witnessed for the first time the Abstract Expressionism of Sam Francis, Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock. During this time Raza was "no longer concerned with capturing the outward shape of things but their inner rhythm; and in evoking a response in the viewer through the use of appropriate colours... it is no longer nature as 'seen' or as 'constructed', but nature as experienced." (G. Sen, Bindu: Space and Time in Raza's Vision, Media Transasia, Bangkok, 1997, p. 79). It was then that Raza abandoned his Cezanne-esque Post-Impressionist style of landscape for a new Expressive technique of brushwork.

The title of this work, Black Moon is the germination of the artist's life-long fascination with the notion of the Bindu. The focal point of the painting is the black moon, a dark orb to the right of the composition, which represents the artist's initial experiment with the concept of the Bindu. This concept of the Bindu was to become pivotal to Raza's works going forward. Raza recalled a night in southern France in Gorbio when 'the revelation of the 'Bindu' came to my mind as a point of departure; a unity of tremendous force, power, energy which the Bindu contained both as an idea and as a seed, a drop, a unity, a geometrical form, a point, a circle containing all the different geometrical shapes, triangles and colours.' (Sayed Haider Raza and Ashok Vajpeyi, Passion: Life and Art of Raza, New Delhi, 2005, p. 61). The painting with the black moon as the focus, has a deep meditative quality that is elemental and primordial. It is very much an example of a new beginning in Raza's work.

Paintings from this period evoke memories of Raza's childhood spent in the forests of Madhya Pradesh 'the most tenacious memory of my childhood is the fear and fascination of the Indian forest... 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... 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.' (Yashodhara Dalmia, The Making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives, 2001, p.155).