Important Notice

"I developed my entire work to create different moods, different climates to express love..."
- S H RAZA

Though it had appeared occasionally in earlier works, S H Raza's preoccupation with the bindu began to manifest in the late 1970s, when his style shifted from gestural abstraction towards geometrical works using a selective colour palette. Raza's interest in this leitmotif emerged from his preoccupation with... "I developed my entire work to create different moods, different climates to express love..."
- S H RAZA

Though it had appeared occasionally in earlier works, S H Raza's preoccupation with the bindu began to manifest in the late 1970s, when his style shifted from gestural abstraction towards geometrical works using a selective colour palette. Raza's interest in this leitmotif emerged from his preoccupation with formal order and geometry, as well as an exploration of nature and spirituality. Over many years, this symbol would evolve and come to signify ideas and concepts influenced by Raza's journey in India and France.

After a few decades of being based in Paris, Raza began to frequently travel to India, and questioned the "Indianness" of his work. This period of travel and self-reflexivity ushered in a deeper engagement with forms, colours and philosophies rooted in his home country. The circle, which has been revered in ancient cultures around the world, became a focal point of Raza's art, through which he explored concepts such as the infinite. Through the repetition of shapes, forms and colours, Raza believed that "you gain energy and intensity, as is gained through the japmala, or the repetition of a word or a syllable until you achieve a state of elevated consciousness." (Artist quoted in Geeti Sen, Bindu: Space and Time in Raza's Vision, New Delhi: Media Transasia India Ltd., 1997, p. 128)

Using this new geometric vocabulary, Raza alluded to nature - which always remained an integral part of his work - as well as Indian philosophical, spiritual and cosmological concepts. He also returned to his native language, increasingly using Hindi and Sanskrit terms as titles for his works. The present lot, whose title means "love," comprises carefully chosen, warm colours often associated with this emotion - shades of red, orange, and yellow radiate outwards from the heart of the canvas, almost spilling beyond its confines.

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