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Lot 36

 

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In this painting titled Colline, which can mean hill, hilltop or foothills, in French and Italian, Raza captures the essence of a mountainous terrain. Broken into planes, the dabs of colour create a composition that is abstract but has clear indications of the landscape it represents. Giving it a title with many connotations related to the hills, Raza creates a painting that is equally complex in its representation. The painting might... In this painting titled Colline, which can mean hill, hilltop or foothills, in French and Italian, Raza captures the essence of a mountainous terrain. Broken into planes, the dabs of colour create a composition that is abstract but has clear indications of the landscape it represents. Giving it a title with many connotations related to the hills, Raza creates a painting that is equally complex in its representation. The painting might also be a reference to the 1929 novel, Colline, by French author Jean Giono. It was also published in English with the title Hill of Destiny. The novel is set in a small village in Provence and is about the struggles of its superstitious inhabitants against the forces of nature. This likely provided the topographical and thematic basis for the present lot.

The decade of the 1950s was an important one for Raza. The move to France led him to understand and appreciate modern European art and its attendant concerns with light, colour and structure. Painted in 1957, when Raza was still at an early stage in what was to become a legendary career, the present lot forms part of his early explorations with form and structure. This would later lead to a more fluid gestural abstraction and then to his engagement with the bindu and its associated spirituality.

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