Important Notice

During the 1960s, Raza grew restless in France and began visiting India frequently, rediscovering childhood memories of the forests of Madhya Pradesh. He also travelled to other parts of India, but it was Rajasthan which inspired some of his most moving works. The colours of his homeland erupted on his canvas in joyous, gestural strokes as seen in the present lot. Paintings from this period, often named for the places they were inspired by, are... During the 1960s, Raza grew restless in France and began visiting India frequently, rediscovering childhood memories of the forests of Madhya Pradesh. He also travelled to other parts of India, but it was Rajasthan which inspired some of his most moving works. The colours of his homeland erupted on his canvas in joyous, gestural strokes as seen in the present lot. Paintings from this period, often named for the places they were inspired by, are non-figural abstractions where "...the outlines of any cognizant forms have virtually disappeared - you may catch here and there a glimpse of a figure, the shimmer of leaves on a tree or the vague markings of human habitation. But it is the mood which prevails, or to put it in his own terms, 'a certain climate of experience'. It is the brushstroke which assumes importance, to create this mood... Rajasthan becomes a metaphor for the colours of India: of vibrant greens and vermilion and ochres, as also blacks. Rajasthan is the mapping out of a metaphorical space in the mind... The image becomes thus enshrined as an icon, as sacred geography." (Geeti Sen, Bindu: Space and Time in Raza's Vision, New Delhi: Media Transasia Ltd., 1997, pp. 76, 98)

Raza was on a journey which would gradually lead him towards geometry and spirituality. The present lot is part of an important earlier phase in which he looked to nature for emotional content. Here, he "...could be seen to be depicting seasons at one level and, at another, exploring the emotive meaning, the unsuspected sensuousness nature invariably evokes. They are emotional essays in colour." (Ashok Vajpeyi ed., A Life in Art: S H Raza, New Delhi: Art Alive Gallery, 2007, p. 78)

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