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Lot 28

 

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S.H. Raza's relocation from Mumbai to Paris in 1950 brought on a transformation in both his medium and his subject. According to the critic Rudy Von Leyden, while Raza's carefully constructed gouaches of the early 1950s comprised a period of 'crystallization' for the artist, "…the new phase which was to break in 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... S.H. Raza's relocation from Mumbai to Paris in 1950 brought on a transformation in both his medium and his subject. According to the critic Rudy Von Leyden, while Raza's carefully constructed gouaches of the early 1950s comprised a period of 'crystallization' for the artist, "…the new phase which was to break in 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 colour 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 about 1953, was one of melting down and fusion. In the furnace of an entirely new passion for colour paint, this living in paint can only be understood as an act of love" (Raza, Sadanga Series, Vakil, Feffer & Simon, Bombay, 1959, p. 19).

Although Raza's canvases from the mid and late 1950s display the technical skills he gained during his years as an apprentice at the École de Paris, the artist used what he learnt about style and technique there as a means rather than an end. His command over colour and medium had become masterful, and as formal structures receded, these elements took center stage in his paintings from the period, communicating the artist's unique vision of land and sky.

Speaking about these canvases, Jacques Lassaigne, then director of the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, noted, "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 shape 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).

In the present lot, the application of paint is not as defined as in Raza's earlier portrayals of the churches and villages that dotted the French countryside. Emphasizing the natural over the man made, this painting foreshadows the path Raza's career would take in the 1960s and 70s, when the intangible mood or experience that a scene provoked, expressed through palette and brushstroke, replaced its tangible, physical elements in his work. Through the burning orange sky and vermillion fields that seem to be closing in on the church and small group of houses in this frame, this canvas speaks of new spontaneity and raw energy informing the artist's creative process - aspects that were nurtured to full fruition during the next phase of his career.

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