Important Notice

Lot 2

For Raza, his move from Mumbai to Paris in 1950 brought about a change in both his medium and subject. According to critic Rudy Von Leyden, while Raza`s carefully constructed gouaches of the early 1950`s comprised a period of `crystallization` for the artist, "…the new phase which was to break in about 1953, was one of melting down and fusion. In the furnace of an entirely new passion for color Raza`s new style was born that was to bring to... For Raza, his move from Mumbai to Paris in 1950 brought about a change in both his medium and subject. According to critic Rudy Von Leyden, while Raza`s carefully constructed gouaches of the early 1950`s comprised a period of `crystallization` for the artist, "…the new phase which was to break in about 1953, was one of melting down and fusion. In the furnace of an entirely new passion for color Raza`s new style was born that was to bring to him international fame in a few short years…The change of medium and manner were not merely technical but signified a fundamental change of attitude. The scholar, who had measured and calculated, burst through the confines of a limited understanding of color and space-created-by-color into a sphere of full realisation. The transformation created such passion that one could best describe this age of Raza as the age of the Lover. This triumphant handling of paint, this living in paint can only be understood as an act of love" (Rudolf Von Leyden, Raza, Sadanga Publications, 1959, p. 19).

Discussing of Raza`s thick impasto landscapes of the mid 1950`s like the present lot, Jacques Lassaigne, then director of the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, said, "…in his sustained efforts to deepen and revitalize his vision Raza has never deviated from the line of research he first charted out for himself. The seeming difference between his canvases of today and his gouaches of yesterday corresponds to the transition from one technique, in which lightness of touch is everything, to another, richer and more complex, which calls for all the resources at the artist`s command…Pure forms take shapes no longer in the void, but in revelatory contrast with their surroundings, in light that exults, doubly bright, against the opacity that threatens it" (as quoted in Ashok Vajpeyi, A Life in Art: S. H. Raza, Art Alive Gallery, New Delhi, 2007, p. 73).

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