Important Notice

Encontre shows S H Raza's thoughtful and deliberate approach to abstract forms and shapes. He creates an intersecting network of lines and planes to form the triangular symbols of purush and prakriti, the male and female energies which beget life and form the balancing forces of nature. Ochre, umber, sienna, red and brown represent the searing heat and passion of Central India, where Raza was born and raised. Through this... Encontre shows S H Raza's thoughtful and deliberate approach to abstract forms and shapes. He creates an intersecting network of lines and planes to form the triangular symbols of purush and prakriti, the male and female energies which beget life and form the balancing forces of nature. Ochre, umber, sienna, red and brown represent the searing heat and passion of Central India, where Raza was born and raised. Through this painting, he returns to an encounter with his roots.

Painted in 1985, Encontre establishes a continuity with works from the preceding decade, when Raza began frequenting India again, from his full life in France. Raza had begun exploring the emotive qualities of colour and landscape in the 1970s. He was concerned with striking a balance between structure, form and colour, but his brushwork was largely gestural in his La Terre series from the 1970s. By the 1980s, while elements of gestural brushwork remained, structure and geometry began to occupy Raza. He moved gradually and consciously, from spontaneity to rigour, before he eventually arrived at a new and highly concentrated symbolic language.

Nature remained at the centre of Raza's work throughout, although his palette and technique underwent dramatic changes. Raza frequently referred to the 1970s as a period of rebirth. And over the following decade, when the present lot was painted, he pared down nature to essential elements. Encontre springs from this crucial phase when structure and geometry solidified into a painterly language that set Raza apart from his peers.

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