Important Notice

In the 1970s, Syed Haider Raza turned towards his Indian roots, exploring them in his quest to discover a unique Indian artistic identity. Memories of a youth spent in the village of Babaria in Madhya Pradesh -around the Narmada River and its lush forests - played out frequently in his works, as seen in this lot. While elements of it retain the spontaneity of his earlier gestural paintings, a certain structure of form and space is present, one... In the 1970s, Syed Haider Raza turned towards his Indian roots, exploring them in his quest to discover a unique Indian artistic identity. Memories of a youth spent in the village of Babaria in Madhya Pradesh -around the Narmada River and its lush forests - played out frequently in his works, as seen in this lot. While elements of it retain the spontaneity of his earlier gestural paintings, a certain structure of form and space is present, one he would articulate more emphatically as his art evolved. The colour black is a dominant undertone; the inky space came to symbolize the dense forests of Madhya Pradesh at night for Raza, evoking his childhood fear of the dark, and nostalgia for it at the same time. In his own words: "The most tenacious memory of my childhood is the fear and fascination of Indian forests...Nights in the forests were hallucinating; sometimes the only humanizing influence was the dancing of the Gond tribes. Daybreak brought back a sentiment of security and well-being...Even today I find that these two aspects of my life dominate me and are an integral part of my paintings," (As quoted in Yashodhara Dalmia, The Making of Indian Art - The Progressives, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2001, pg. 155).

Amidst this expressive black, swatches of red, orange, yellow, green and white appear like flashes in the dark, their synthesis radiating energy and anticipating the coming of day. Raza's fluid brushwork contained within a nascent discipline of structure creates rapid movement on the surface of the canvas, inviting the viewer to confront and engage with it on an emotional level. This abstract preoccupation with his Indian origins opened the floodgates to a whole new world for Raza to express in his art. It led him to the dark Bindu - the black dot signifying creation from which all life emerged - and further cemented his identity in the Modernist era of Indian art.

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