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Lot 51

 

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On the back of this 1979 painting, Raza has inscribed: "One of the first painting of the early period when "Bindu" became the central image." As such, the importance of this quintessential Raza work cannot be overstated. For Raza, the Bindu "???symbolises the seed, bearing the potential of all life, in a sense. It is also a visible form containing all the essential requisites of line, tone, colour, texture and space. The black space is charged... On the back of this 1979 painting, Raza has inscribed: "One of the first painting of the early period when "Bindu" became the central image." As such, the importance of this quintessential Raza work cannot be overstated. For Raza, the Bindu "???symbolises the seed, bearing the potential of all life, in a sense. It is also a visible form containing all the essential requisites of line, tone, colour, texture and space. The black space is charged with latent forces aspiring for fulfilment." (The artist quoted in Geeti Sen, Bindu: Space and Time in Raza's Vision, New Delhi: Media Transasia Ltd., 1997, p.134)

Raza's work underwent a significant transition in the 1970s. So radical was this shift, that he believes it was only at this point that he was born as a painter. He states, "In terms of painting, immense possibilities seemed to open based on elementary geometric forms." (Sen, p. 126) Moving away from expressionism, he began exploring geometric forms, frequently centring on a solid black dot or Bindu. This concentrated point symbolised both the beginning and end of the cosmos from which all matter and life is generated, and into which it is eventually reabsorbed.

In the present lot, Raza divides the surface between two horizontal fields of complementary colours. At the very centre of the surface is the Bindu, straddling both fields as if to suggest it controls the delicate equilibrium maintained between opposing forces. In this self-described earliest painting from the Bindu series, Raza seems to have taken some time to consider the possibilities which the square format offered to a perfectly centred circle, on a canvas divided equally into two colours. His thought process is reflected in his inscriptions on the back of this painting. By deciding to change the orientation and naming it Horizon, the essence of the Bindu as the whole that contains the juxtapositions of earth and sky were manifested. Raza has continued to explore the endless profundity of the concept.

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