Sayed Haider Raza

Sotheby's New York, 19 March 2008, lot 27
Sotheby's New York, 16 September 2010, lot 51

New York, Aicon Gallery, From the Vault: Highlights from the Herwitz and Gallery Collection, 23rd August - 16th September 2007

There is craquelure and paint shrinkage in the work, most notably in areas of thick paint. This is consistent with age and medium. Light abrasions are also visible in the lower right corner which are possibly inherent. The painting has been recently consolidated and cleaned and is in good overall condition, as viewed.
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Painted in 1962, thick with impasto and executed with broad gestural strokes, this stellar, abstractionist work Route de Chomerac exudes a dynamic, tempestuous energy so characteristic of work from Raza's abstract period.

The 1960s marked a distinct shift in the painting of Sayed Haider Raza, from the city and naturescapes of his early life (see lots 3 and 4) toward a more expressionist style, inspired by his travels in America in 1962 (the year of the current work), and the growing interest in gestural and Abstract Expressionism. The year 1962 also marked Raza's shift in preferred medium, from oil to acrylic, which allowed him greater freedom in the application of paint, resulting in the creation of more abstract yet fluid works. Route de Chomerac represents perhaps one of Raza's last 1960s works produced in oil before this transition took place.

Raza explains: "In California, I found that I shared affinities with the work and ideas of Hans Hofmann. Then I discovered the works of Sam Francis and of Mark Rothko, which came as a revelation. Discussions with some of professors and painters [at the University of California] Berkeley stimulated me, both in matters of technique and theory. 

"But ... I wanted to aim at something more than mere technical command. I realized that my eyes were focused outwards, and there was an imperative need to look within myself. Thereafter, visual reality, the aim to construct a 'tangible' world receded. In its place there was a preoccupation with evoking the essence, the mood of places and of people ... expressed through emotive colors and forms, which became increasingly gestural." (S.H. Raza quoted by G. Sen, Bindu: Space and Time in Raza's Vision, New Delhi, 1997, pp. 57-59)