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S H Raza
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At the heart of S H Raza’s art is the celebration of nature, whether it emerged through his early expressionist watercolour landscapes from the 1940s, or the Cubist compositions during his time in Paris, or his later abstract works characterised by the fusion of geometric forms with principles of spirituality. Often, his themes were drawn from his childhood memories spent in the forests of his native village in Madhya Pradesh. Raza’s stylistic...
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At the heart of S H Raza’s art is the celebration of nature, whether it emerged through his early expressionist watercolour landscapes from the 1940s, or the Cubist compositions during his time in Paris, or his later abstract works characterised by the fusion of geometric forms with principles of spirituality. Often, his themes were drawn from his childhood memories spent in the forests of his native village in Madhya Pradesh. Raza’s stylistic evolution over nearly eight decades reveal the life of an artist and individual who constantly challenged the boundaries of modern art, as well as his own.
Born in 1922, Raza spent his childhood growing up in the village of Babaria in Mandala district in Madhya Pradesh surrounded by dark forests and lush landscapes. This early experience with nature became a lifetime preoccupation for Raza, and he would revisit these memories on canvas in later years. His love of art brought him to Bombay where he enrolled privately as a student at the J J School of Arts, earning his diploma in 1947. At the same time, he made his living by working at a blockmaker's design studio in downtown Bombay, which overlooked one of the busiest streets in the city and inspired him to paint his early watercolours. His paintings attracted the attention of fellow artists F N Souza and M F Husain—with whom he co-founded the Progressive Artists’ Group—and critics such as Rudy von Leyden, Walter Langhammer and Emmanuel Schleisinger—three Europeans whose presence, patronage and influence was crucial in the burgeoning art world of then Bombay.
In 1948, Raza travelled to Kashmir, a place which impressed upon him greatly, and inspired him to paint with a renewed passion and intensity. That year was the first turning point in Raza's life. One of his landscapes of the Kashmir Valley won him the gold medal from the Bombay Arts Society. The PAG held their first group show in Bombay, which received much praise and acclaim and laid the groundwork for the beginning of Indian modernism. In the same year, Raza also met the renowned French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, who advised him to study the works of Paul Cézanne to bring about a sense of construction in his work. Inspired by his art, Raza travelled to Paris on a government scholarship, and spent the next few years honing his craft at the Ecole de Paris. This move to France ushered in the next phase of Raza's career.
Inspired by the French landscape, Raza's works from the 1950s demonstrate a decidedly Cubist approach, informed by a “sense of order and proportion in form and structure.” (Artist quoted in Geeti Sen, Bindu: Space and Time in Raza’s Vision, New Delhi: Media Transasia Ltd., 1997, p. 57) He exhibited in many group and solo shows in Paris, and his works sold and became part of important collections. Raza had gained widespread recognition in Europe and India as well. He also met his future partner, the artist Janine Mongillat, while studying at art school. Raza and Mongillat got married in 1959 and visited India the same year for an exhibition of Raza’s works organised by the artist and gallery owner Bal Chhabda at Gallery 59 in Mumbai. Following this show, Raza returned to India several times, travelling to his native village—which inspired the bindu motif in later works—as well as other undiscovered parts. These visits to places new and old ushered yet another phase of painting that incorporated his Indian heritage. “Raza was getting himself away from the need to paint what he saw, he was drawn more to paint what he recalled... It was not romantic nostalgia but Raza was torn between two worlds: the tumultuous present, the tranquil past. Beauty and fear coming together again as in the beginning of his life.” (Ashok Vajpeyi ed., A Life in Art: S H Raza, New Delhi: Art Alive Gallery, 2007, p. 80)
By this time, in the 1960s, Raza began departing from the Cubist style to a more fluid and fluent form of expression. In 1962, he was invited as a visiting lecturer at the University of California in Berkeley, USA. The American abstract expressionist movement had taken hold over the Parisian art scene, and Raza saw greater freedom in this particular style, inspired by artists such as Mark Rothko whose works he encountered during his time in the US. He gradually abandoned all figurative and representational forms and the carefully constructed compositions of the 1950s, and began making gestural strokes on canvas, where the figure and ground were no longer separated, but blended in a composite whole. In his medium too, he switched from oil to acrylic. Raza’s gestural works of this period were emotional essays full of colour and vibrant movement. “...colours were not being used as merely formal elements: they were emotionally charged. Their movements or consonances on the canvases seemed more and more to be provoked by emotions, reflecting or embodying emotive content. The earlier objectivity, or perhaps the distance started getting replaced or at least modified by an emergent subjectivity – colours started to take the light load of emotions more than ever before.” (Vajpeyi, p. 78)
Raza worked mainly with a few primary colours, assembled and reassembled to simulate the passion and colours of his homeland. At the same time, he had realised the spiritual and metaphysical aspects of nature and began incorporating these principles in his works. In the late 1970s, the artist's focus turned to pure geometrical forms; his images were improvisations on an essential theme: that of the mapping out of a metaphorical space in the mind. Around this time, the bindu—a motif that would become synonymous with Raza’s art— began emerging in his work. It was the result of his concern with “pure plastic order” combined with his preoccupation with nature. “Both have converged into a single point and became inseparable; the point, 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.” (Artist quoted in Sen, p. 134)
The appearance of the bindu as a single, meditative form marked Raza’s transition into pure geometric abstraction, the hallmark of his art in later years. In his long and illustrious career, Raza’s works have been a part of numerous exhibitions including the São Paulo Biennale in 1958; the Biennale de Menton in France in 1966; 1968 and in 1978; Contemporary Indian Painting at the Royal Academy, London in 1982; Roopankar Museum of Fine Arts, Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal; Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai; National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi in 1997; Celebrating 85 Years of Living Legend S H Raza, a travelling exhibition at Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai, Mumbai, New Delhi organised by Aryan Art Gallery, and Raza – A Retrospective, Saffronart, New York in association with Berkeley Square Gallery in 2007; Paysage: Select Works 1950s-1970s, Sovereign FZE, Dubai in 2014; and Nirantar, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi and Art Musings, Mumbai in 2016—to name a few. He was conferred the Padma Shri Award by the President of India in 1981 and the Padma Bhushan in 2007.
S H Raza passed away on 23 July 2016.
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Born
1922
Babaria Madhya Pradesh
Died
July 23, 2016
New Delhi
Education
1950-53 Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris1943-47 Studied at Sir J.J. School of Art, Mumbai1939-43 Nagpur School of Art, Nagpur
Exhibitions
Selected Posthumous Exhibitions 2017 'Gandhi in Raza', Visual...
Selected Posthumous Exhibitions 2017 'Gandhi in Raza', Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre; Akar Prakar Art Advisory, New Delhi2017 'The Black Sun', Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), New Delhi2017 'Tantra', Art Konsult, New Delhi Selected Solo Exhibitions 2016 'Nirantar', Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi; Art Musings, Mumbai 2015 'Aarambh', Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi2014 'Pyas', Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi2014 'Parikrama - Around Gandhi
', Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi2014 'Paysage: Select Works 1950s-1970s', Sovereign FZE, Dubai2014 'Parikrama: Around Gandhi', Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi2013 'Shabd-Bindu', Akar Prakar, Kolkata2013 'Antardhwani', Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi2012-13 'Vistaar', Art Musings and Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai2012 The Arts Trust, Mumbai2012 'Bindu Vistaar', Grosvenor Gallery, London2011 'Punaragaman', Vadehra Art Gallery and Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi 2010 Raza Ceramiques, Galerie Flora J, Paris2010 Galerie Patrice Trigano, Paris2010 RL Fine Arts, New York2010 Akar Prakar, Kolkata2010 'Recent Works', Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi2007 ‘Raza – A Retrospective’, Saffronart, New York in association with Berkeley Square Gallery 2007 ‘Celebrating 85 Years of Living Legend S H Raza’, a Traveling Exhibition at Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai, Mumbai, New Delhi organized by Aryan Art Gallery, New Delhi 2006 'Selected Works of S H Raza', Peter Louis Gallery, Paris2006 ‘Rang Ras – S. H. Raza’, Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai 2006 ‘Metamorphosis’, Aryan Art Gallery, Mumbai, Delhi and Hong Kong 2005 Saffronart and Berkeley Square Gallery, London and New York 2005 Aryan Art Gallery, Delhi 2005 Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai 2004 Aryan Art Gallery, Delhi 2002 Jehangir Art Gallery, Sharan Apparao Gallery, Gallery Chemould, Mumbai 1999 Gallery Art 54, New York 1997 Le Parcons du regard, Oletta, Corsices, France 1997 Galleri Grewal Mohanjeet, Paris 1997 Roopankar Museum of Fine Arts, Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal; Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai; National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi. 1994 L’Artheque d’Enterprise, Group Michel Ferrier, Echirolle, Grenoble 1992 Jehangir Nicholsan Museum, National Centre for Performing Arts, Mumbai 1992 Parcours des Arts, La Louvesc, France 1991 Galerie Eterso, Cannes 1991 Retrospective 1952-91, Palais Carnles, Musee de Menton, France 1990 Gallery Chemould, Mumbai 1988 Gallery Chemould, Mumbai ; Galleri Koloritten, Stavanger, Norway 1987 La Tete de l ’Art, Grenoble 1985 Galerie Pierre Parat, Paris 1984 Gallery Chemould, Mumbai 1982 Galerie Leob, Bern, Switzerland 1982 Galerie J.Y Noblet, Grenoble 1980 Galleriet, Oslo 1979 Stavanger Kunstforening, Norway 1978 Jehangir Nicholson Museum, National Centre for Performing Arts, Mumbai 1978 ‘Utsav’, Madhya Pradesh Kala Parishad, Bhopal 1977 La Tete de l ’Art, Grenoble 1976 Jehangir Art Gallery, Gallery Chemould, Mumbai ; Stavanger Kunstforening Galerie, Norway 1975 Galleria Matuzia, San Remo, Italy 1974 La Palette, Trouville 1972 Abbaye du Pommier, Anncy, Le Grenier, Roquebrune-Village 1969 Galerie Lara Vincy, Paris 1968 Tecta Galerie, Dusseldorf, Germany; Gallery Chemould, Mumbai 1963-68 Dom Galerie, Cologne, Germany 1962 Worth Ryder Art Gallery, Berkeley, University of California, California, USA 1962 Lanyon Gallery, Palo Alto, California 1962 Galerie Dresdnere, Montreal 1962-68 Galerie Dresdnere, Toronto 1959 Jehangir Art gallery, Mumbai 1959-1960 Galerie Dresdnere, Montreal 1959 All India Fine Aarts and Crafts Society, New Delhi 1958-61-62- 64 -67 -69 Galerie Lara Vincy, Paris 1950 Charles Petras’s Institute of Foreign Languages, Mumbai
Selected Group Exhibitions 2014 'Immutable Gaze Part I: Masterpieces of Modern and Pre-Modern Indian Art', aicon Gallery, New York 2013 'Ram Kumar and the Bombay Progressives: The Form and the Figure Part II', Aicon Gallery, New York 2013 'Miniature Rewind 1', presented by Grosvenor Gallery, London for Art Dubai 2013, Dubai 2013 'Ideas of the Sublime', presented by Vadehra Art Gallery at Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
2013 'Nothing is Absolute: A Journey through Abstraction', The Jehangir Nicholson Gallery at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS), Mumbai
2013 'The Discerning Eye: Modern Masters', Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi 2012 'Iconic Processions', Aicon Gallery, New York 2012 'Extending the Line', Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi2012 'Gallery Collection', Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi 2012 'Contemporary: A Selection of Modern and Contemporary Art', prsented by Sakshi Gallery at The Park, Chennai2012 'Through the Ages: South Asian Sculpture and Painting from Antiquity to Modernism', Aicon Gallery, New York 2012 'Sightings', Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai2011 'Adbhutam: Rasa in Indian Art', Centre of International Modern Art(CIMA), Kolkata2011 'The Path of the Lotus: Indian Art', Grosvenor Gallery, London2011 'Modern Masters', Aicon Gallery, New York2011 'Form and Formlessness', Art Alive Gallery, Gurgaon 2011 'POP: Progressives on Paper', Aicon Gallery, New York 2011 'Anecdotes', Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai2011 'Masterclass', Dhoomimal Art Gallery, New Delhi2011 'Continuum', Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi 2010 'Besides Paris', Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata2010 'Paper Trails', Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi2010 'The Progressives & Associates', Grosvenor Gallery, London2010 'From Miniature to Modern: Traditions in Transition', Rob Dean Art, London in association with Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai2010 'Above and Beyond', Aicon Gallery, London2010 'Masters of Maharashtra', collection from Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi at Piramal Gallery, National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Mumbai2009 'Bharat Ratna! Jewels of Modern Indian Art', Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 2009 'Indian Art After Independence: Selected Works from the Collections of Virginia & Ravi Akhoury and Shelley & Donald Rubin', Emily Lowe Gallery, Hempstead 2009 'In Search of the Vernacular', Aicon Gallery, New York 2009 'Think Small', Art Alive Gallery, New Delhi 2009 'Progressive to Altermodern: 62 Years of Indian Modern Art', Grosvenor Gallery, London 2009,10 'Master Class', The Arts Trust, Mumbai2008 'Modern and Contemporary Indian Art', Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi 2008 ‘Freedom 2008 : Sixty Years After Indian Independence’, Centre for International Modern Art (CIMA), Kolkata 2008 'Magnificient Seven', Art Alive Gallery, New Delhi2007-08 ‘India Art Now: Between Continuity and Transformation’, Province of Milan, Milan, Italy 2005 Ashta Nayak: Eight Pioneers of Indian Art', Aicon Gallery, New York
2004 Aryan Art Gallery, Delhi 2004 Art Musings, Mumbai2003 Des duos et des couples, Aixen Provence, France (with Pablo Picasso and Francoise Gillot) 2002 Jane Woorhese Zimmerli Art Museum, New Jersey ; Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai2001,2002 Saffronart and Pundole Art Gallery, Metropolitan Pavilion, New York 2001 ‘Indian Contemporary Fine Art’, Saffronart and Apparao Galleries, Los Angeles 2001 ‘Symphony in White’, Gallery 7, Mumbai 2001 ‘Cultural Ties’, Kapil Jariwala Gallery, London 2000 Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and Smithsonian Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C. 2000 Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan 1999 Timeless Vision – Contemporary Art of India, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts 1999 Festival of Contemporary Art, ‘Energy’, Gallery 7, Mumbai 1999 ‘The Turning Point’, Jehangir Art gallery, Mumbai 1999 Salar de Mai, Paris 1999 Apparao Galleries, Hong Kong 1999 Apparao Galleries and Gallery Art 54, New York 1999 Timeless Vision – Contemporary Art of India, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts 1998 ‘Spirit and Soul’, Indian Painting Today, Hong Kong 1998 Gegenwatskunst aw Indian, Harsh Goenka, Bayer A.G. Leverkusen, Germany 1998 ‘The Search Within’, Kloster Pernegg, Austria 1998 National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai 1998 ‘L’indracable frontiers’, Toulouse, France 1998 International Exhibition, Lisbon, Portugal 1997 ‘Indian Contemporary Art’, Fine Art Resource, Berlin 1997 ‘An Ode to Independence’, Apparao Galleries, London 1997 ‘Tryst with Destiny’, Centre for International Modern Art (CIMA), National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Mumbai 1997 Singapore Art Museum 1997 ‘Within The Frame’, Apparao Galleries, Hong Kong 1997 The Moderns, The Progressive Artists Group, National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai 1996 Progressive Artists Group, National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai 1996 'Chamatkar', The Indian Metaphor, Whitleys Art Gallery, London 1996 ‘Les Oceans’, Metropolitaine, Lisbon, Portugal 1996 ‘Within The Frame’, The Gallery, Chennai,Visual Art Centre Hong Kong 1996 Progressive Artists Group, National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai 1996 'Chamatkar', The Indian Metaphor, Whitleys Art Gallery, London 1995 ‘Sept Peintres Indiens Contemporains’, Le Monde de l’Art, Paris 1995 Festival d’ Avignon, France 1995 ‘Tree of my Life’, Village Gallery, Delhi 1994 Salon de Mai, Espace Branley, Paris 1993 ‘Wounds’, Centre for International Modern Art (CIMA), Kolkata 1993 ‘Indian encounter’, The Gallery, Nehru Centre, London 1993 ‘Souvenir d’en France’, Lalit Kala Galleries, Delhi 1991 ‘State of Art’, Paintings with Computer, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai 1991 Ceramics, ‘Faenza Anni 90’, Italy 1990 L’Artotheque d’Entreprise, Group Michel Ferrier, Echirolle Grenoble 1990 ‘Realite Seconde’, Galerie Ariane, Paris 1989 Salon de Mai, Grand Palais, Paris 1989 Artistes Indiens a Paris, Galerie Ariane, Paris 1988 Maison de la Culture, Space Andre Malraux, Reims, France 1988 ‘Art for CRY’, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Delhi 1988 The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Olympiad, Seoul, Korea 1987 Galerie La tete de l’Art, Grenoble 1987 ‘Coups de Coeur’, Halles de L’ille, Geneva, Switzerland 1986 ‘Indian Art Today’, The Philips Collection, Washington 1986 “Contemporary Indian Art”, Chester Herwitz Family Collection, Festival of India, Grey Gallery, New York 1985 Artistes Indiens en France, Foundation Nationale des Arts Graphiques et Plastiques, Paris 1984 J. Y. Noblet, Paris 1983 Salon de Mai, Paris 1983 Bibliotheque Nationale, Luxemborg 1982 ‘Contemporary Indian Art’, Royal Academy, London 1982 “India, Myth & Reality”, Aspects of Modern Indian Art, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, UK 1981 Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark 1980-86 Kunstnere, Fra Syd-Franksike, Stavanger Kunstforening, Norway 1978 ‘Pictorial Space’, Lalit Kala Akademi, Delhi 1978 Salon de Dessin, Paris 1978 Vieux Presbitaire, Gorbio 1978 L’ Estampe Aujourd’hui’, Bibliotheque Nationale: Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporian, Grand Palais, Paris 1975 Sahel Palais de l’Europe, Menton 1974 Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi 1974 Premier Salon International d’Art Contemporain, Paris 1974 Salon Grands et Jeunes d’Aujoued’hui 1973 Estampes Contemporaines, Musee de Menton 1973 Galleria Matuzia, San Remo 1973 Pacific Cultural Museum, Pasadena, California 1973 Indian Contemporary Painters, Renwich Gallery, Washington 1973 Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris 1972 Wolfgang-Gurlitt Museum, Linz, Austria 1971 Recherche et Expression, Montferneil 1971 Art et Fer Blanc, Paris 1967 Silver Jubilee Exhibition of Gallery Chemould, Mumbai 1965 Promesses tenues, Musee Galliera, Paris 1965 Realities Nouvelles, Paris 1965 Art Now in India, Newcastle, UK 1963 Grands et Jeunes d’ Aujourd’ hui, Paris, Salons Comparaisons, Paris 1962 Commonwealth Exhibition, Commonwealth Institute London 1962 Ecole de Paris 62, Galerie Charpentier, Paris 1962 Werke der Ecole de Paris, Dom Galerie, Cologne 1962 Gallery 63, New York 1962 Commonwealth Exhibition, Commonwealth Institute, London 1961 Ecole de Paris 61, Galerie Charpentier, Paris 1961 Galerie Semiha Huber, Zurich 1960 Modern Indian Art, Santiago, Trinidad and Mexico 1960 Galerie Charpentier, Paris 1958 John Moores’ Exhibition, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool 1958 ‘Trends in Contemporary Painting from India’, Graham Gallery, New York 1957 Exhibition organized by the Journal Asahi, Tokyo 1957 ‘Transferences’, Zwemmer Gallery, London 1956 Les Arts en France et dans le Monde, Musee d’ Art Moderne, Paris 1953 Galerie Raymond Creuze, Paris 1952 Galerie Saint-Placide 1951 Salon de Mai, Paris 1948 Progressive Artists Group, Mumbai
Joint Exhibitions
2009 ‘Spirit of India’, with M F Husain at Kings Road Galleries, London 2009 'Shanti: A Scream for Peace', with Manish Pushkale at Bugno Art Gallery, Venice2004 ‘S. H. Raza and Manish Pushkale – Recent Works’, Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai
Participations 2013-14 'Transition', 20th Anniversary Show, Centre of International Modern Art(CIMA), Kolkata2012-13 'Radical Terrain: Modernist Art from India', Rubin Museum of Art, New York 2012 'Modernist Art from India: Approaching Abstraction', Rubin Museum of Art, New York
2012 'Synergy 2012', 12th Anniversary Show, Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai2012 'Crossings: Time Unfolded, Part 2', Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), New Delhi 2011 'Ethos V: Indian Art Through the Lens of History (1900 to 1980), Indigo Blue Art, Singapore
2011 India Art Festival, Nehru Centre, Mumbai presented by Akar Prakar, Kolkata2011 ‘Manifestations VI', Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi 2011 'Miniscule Marvel', presented by Contemplate at Gallery BMB, Mumbai 2011 ‘Manifestations V', Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi2011 'Roots in the Air, Branches Below: Modern & Contemporary Art from India', San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose 2011 'Time Unfolded', Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), New Delhi2011 'Resonance', Art Musings, Mumbai 2010 'Evolve: 10th Anniversary Show', Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai 2010 'Manifestations IV', Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi2010 'Roots', 25th Anniversary Exhibition of Sakshi Art Gallery, Mumbai at The Park, Chennai2009 'Armory Show', New York presented by Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi 2008-09 ''Modern India', organized by Institut Valencià d'Art Modern (IVAM) and Casa Asia, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture at Valencia, Spain 2008 'Harvest 2008', organized by Arushi Arts at The Stainless Gallery, New Delhi 2007-08 'From Everyday To The Imagined: Modern Indian Art', Singapore Art Museum, Singapore and at Museum of Art, Seoul National University, Seoul 1998 ‘Harmony Show;, Nehru Centre, Mumbai 1996 ‘Harmony Show;, Nehru Centre, Mumbai 1992 International Biennale de Dakar, Senegal 1987 Biennial of Havana, Cuba 1986 Biennale Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal 1976 Biennale de Menton, France 1972 Biennale de Menton, Realites Nouvelles 1968 Biennale de Menton, France 1968 First Triennale, New Delhi 1966 Salon Comparaisons, Paris 1966 Biennale de Menton, France 1964 Biennale de Menton, France 1963 Biennale du Maroc, Rabat 1962 Salon Comparaisons, Paris 1958 Biennale de Bruges 1958 Biennale de Sao Paulo 1957 Biennale 57, Pavilion de Marsan, Paris 1956 Biennale de Venice
Honours and Awards
2007 Awarded the ’Padma Bhushan’, by the Government of India 2004...
2007 Awarded the ’Padma Bhushan’, by the Government of India 2004 Lalit Kala Ratna Puraskar, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi 1981 Awarded the ’Padma Shri’, by the Goevrnment of India 1981 Elected Fellow of the Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi 1981 Awarded Kalidas Sanman National Award, Government of Madhya Pradesh 1956 Awarded the ‘Prix de la Critique’, Paris 1948 Gold Medal, Bombay Art Society, Mumbai 1946 Silver Medal, Bombay Art Society, Mumbai
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Taking a brief break from his painting and the constant stream of visitors that come to see him in his Gorbio studio, Sayed Haider Raza spent a summer morning in 2007 in conversation with Saffronart about his recent work, and the long journey it has taken to reach this point in his career.
What were the various paths that led you to your present geometric meditations on nature and its elements? Can you...
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Taking a brief break from his painting and the constant stream of visitors that come to see him in his Gorbio studio, Sayed Haider Raza spent a summer morning in 2007 in conversation with Saffronart about his recent work, and the long journey it has taken to reach this point in his career.
What were the various paths that led you to your present geometric meditations on nature and its elements? Can you also talk a little bit about your creative process today, and the ways in which it has evolved over the years?
Yes, you know, it is a very difficult thing for a painter to talk about his art. But I feel that sometimes certain expressions are necessary because unfortunately, very often, invariably, journalists talk about not really the important things which concern creativity in painting or art and the expression of spirituality that artists or poets have. They talk about certain, very secondary things. Now, very briefly, I would say that this 'research' of mine over the past almost sixty years has been a long journey from Madhya Pradesh, Central India - Damoh, Mandla, Narsinghpur, Narmada - to Nagpur, then to Bombay, and as a young man of twenty, twenty five, thirty years, I was searching. In 1947 India became independent and we were immensely happy. We wanted to take our destiny in our hands, not only as Indians. As painters. As thinkers. As people involved in 'artistic research'. There was very little of this 'research' in India apart from the contribution which I must say has been made by the Bengal artists in the beginning of the twentieth century - painters like Nandalal Bose, Asit Kumar Haldar, Abanindranath Tagore and many others who have contributed to the 'research' of Indian painting in a traditional way, and Jamini Roy and the poet Tagore [Rabindranath] in a vital modern way. We as young painters were drawn towards Bengal because they brought to our notice the importance of tradition in painting, whereas in the schools we were learning European art - painting and drawing from models, Greek and Roman, and following the European way of the 'world seen by the retina' or the eyes, as opposed to the concept of antar jyoti or antar gyan, the third eye in India which was important to us, which both in Bengal and in Gujarat the painters of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century drew our attention to. I personally was very happy and grateful; I even had one simple and acute ambition to come to Shantniketan for studies. I couldn't make it - I could only go to Nagpur and then later to Bombay with the help of the scholarships that were given to me. And I worked - first in Nagpur in 1940-41 and then in Bombay between 1942 and 1950. I had another ambition then - to see French art; to visit Europe and find a vital center of art where I could live and work and think. You see, very briefly, I would say that Indian music, dance, and culture were on the minds of Europeans, but not Indian painting. It was a miracle that Amrita Shergill emerged as a modern painter in the 1930's and 40's. Alas she died very young in India. We were very unhappy, but she inspired us to inquire and find out - What is art? What is Indian culture? What is life? And so I decided to come to France where I was attracted by the paintings of C?zanne, Gauguin, van Gogh and other French painters. Souza went over to London and Samant went to New York. Now, you see, the thing was that we wanted to take the bull by the horns. We wanted to see what is what, and it was not a small story - I needed ten years in Bombay and I needed thirty years here to understand what is 'plastic art', what the fundamental requirements of a 'vital painted work' were so that it could be called important. I did this in France, in Paris, and I am grateful that my wife Janine Mongillat participated, and that I could come to a certain recognition in the art world in France and the rest of the world.
But I was still unhappy. I said to myself: Yes, it is alright to be an important painter of the Ecole de Paris, but where is your Indian background Raza? I asked myself. And I started coming more and more regularly to India - for two to three months every year to study again what Indian culture was, what Indian sculpture was. I went to Ellora and Ajanta, I went to Benares, I went to Gujarat and Rajasthan. I looked at the sculptures and paintings, I read books, and still I needed another twenty years to arrive where I am today. You know, it's not very easy to give fifty years of one's life to the 'fundamental research' of painting. It was a long period, a long wait, but I did it. And these two periods are very important - the first period between 1940 and 1970/75, and the second between 1975/80 and 2000, where I brought Indian ethnography, Indian concepts into vital painted works. And today, happily, for the last three years alone I am seeing the results and recognition of this work in the international arena. My paintings are well received in New York, in Tokyo, Singapore, India, France, and everywhere else.
Today, I am working in spite of bad health at the age of almost eighty six in the South of France, where I am painting Maha Bharat. Can you imagine - I didn't put it as one word [like the epic], but as two, meaning 'India the Great'. I am proud of my country though I am very grateful to France and to my French wife Janine, who assisted me in understanding what art is, and also gave me an insight into religious Christian thought. I pray to Ganeshji and Shiva, I go to a mosque, I go to a synagogue, and I go to a church. I feel that divine power is extremely important and somehow it creeps in even in my works. I have done paintings where I have inscribed 'Yatra naryast poojyante ramantra tatva devita', a Sanskrit shloka [saying] meaning 'a house where woman is respected and adored, God's dwell'. I have done other paintings where Hindi or Sanskrit shlokas are present, and these are being shown at the moment at a chateau in Gorbio, where I am, for the last three months. They have been very well received - people have been coming from all over the world to this little village. You see, it is not even like Kakiya in Madhya Pradesh [the hamlet of seven houses where the artist was born], and people are still coming.
[In Hindi] It's by God's blessing, and I am so happy, that all this could be achieved in one short lifetime. I have not forgotten my language, I have created and maintained the relationship of a lifelong-resident with India. People forget. I go to Poona and visit the shrine of Saint Dnyaneshwar. I meet the artists who work there and ask them about Marathi sayings that are attributed to the Saint and his family. [In English] Now, you see, the essence of the story is that I have never left India. I love my country, I am proud of it, and it's not only sentimental my friend. Don't think that it's only emotional. I have been linked up with the profound spiritual, religious message that India has to give to Indians and to the world of which we are forgetful at times, even in India.
Still, the world is slowly recognizing the importance of Indian culture, which is immense, but also of contemporary Indian art. Today, Indian painters are received well all over the world. The young painters from Central India are being presented in Germany and America and other places in a very successful manner and so are the painters of my generation, like Gaitonde, Husain, Tyeb Mehta, Ram Kumar and others. I think we have to take the 'research' further, however, and do important work instead of being interested in superficial things - money, fame and success. We have to work for a pure, fundamental 'research' in art and poetry and music. But I am being too long winded! Do convey the message, though, because I feel that sometimes the painter has to pride his art [in terms of the creative process rather than its material results]. They talk about the prices of my paintings in New York - I am happy about that. I am not neglecting the logic of economics. But let them also say that Raza is a colorist, let them say he has brought in a pictorial art expression of what is important in the last ten centuries of Indian culture. I am painting Nagas, I am painting Kundalini, I am painting the Prakriti Purush concept of male and female. These things have rarely been brought in a vital pictorial way in contemporary Indian art. Some of us are doing it - I am trying to do my best.
As a 'messenger' of Indian spirituality, and everything else the country has to offer its people and the world, you turned to 'significant form' through symbolism. However, many of your global contemporaries like Noland and Stella turned to pure form to repudiate symbolism from their art. Can you share your thoughts on this difference?
Well, it is symbolism in a way, but it is more a concentration on the significance of vital forms. You see, only symbolism or philosophy is not enough. Buddhi to hriday ki dasi hain [the mind is slave to the heart], said Mahatma Gandhi. Einstein has also said that the emotion is extremely important. You have to go beyond imagination. Kala ja akal ke aage ke noor, chirage rah hain manzil nahin [move beyond the mind and intelligence, it is only a path, not a destination], you have to go beyond intelligence. Now, you see, this has to be done and I have a feeling that only being an Indian or having an Indian passport is not enough. You have to 'know' - mano ke Shankar, na mano to kankar - if you believe in a symbol like the shivling [a sculpted representation of Shankar or Shiva in stone], it can be godly; if you do not believe, it is no more than a pebble. A stone can represent divine power, and it can also be just the visual representation of a stone! So the question of finding the immense power of symbolism in Indian culture is one thing. To be dedicated to it in a romantic way, is entirely a different thing. Now it depends who the artists are that are working in this direction, and what they are trying to show.
You see for me, artists like Gaitonde and Jamini Roy are very important. Also Amrita Shergill, Ram Kumar, Krishen Khanna, and painters from Bengal, or Gujarat, or Madhya Pradesh who are working in the direction of 'significant form'. More than being only abstract or modern or symbolic or religious, it is important that there should be an integration of vital form and a mystic, emotional, divine perception of this universe, which is a very complex matter.
Yes, you have mentioned a few times that this complexity also involves a "complete sensory experience" for the viewer. This involves the work of a sixth sense as well, given the importance you place on the 'soul' as a sensory organ. Can you tell us a little about this?
I go to the Church in France because it is a Christian country. When I come to India I visit our temples, mandirs, and travel to the sources where Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism emerged from. Mahavir is very important to me, Buddha is very important to me - I have a feeling that today we should come closer to human hearts and human sentiments, to shanti [peace] and to love, rather than hatred and violence. I think that the concept of vegetarian food, for instance, should develop more and more. God has given everything to humanity to subsist. Why kill birds and animals, who suffer when you do this. Now, you see, these are the ideas we have to not only believe in, but we have to practice. The majority of people still eat meat. We have to stop throwing bombs on cities and fighting with each other. We have to love each other and develop a sense of 'consideration'. It is possible. Ishwar Allah tere naam, ham sab ko sammatti de bhagvan [By whatever name you are called, God, give us all peace]! These are teachings which come from my country! We have to take them, and with a profound or deep understanding; not in a superficial manner.
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Om
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