Important Notice

"Away from India, I am constantly concerned with all that is happening at home. I am keen to reach the sources that have nourished me as a child, the ideals and concepts that have grown in my mind during the years, with greater awareness and meaning" - S H RAZA

In the 1970s, Raza's aesthetic style began to depart from the precise, structured Cubist forms of the previous Paris years to a fluid gestural style, underscored by a... "Away from India, I am constantly concerned with all that is happening at home. I am keen to reach the sources that have nourished me as a child, the ideals and concepts that have grown in my mind during the years, with greater awareness and meaning" - S H RAZA

In the 1970s, Raza's aesthetic style began to depart from the precise, structured Cubist forms of the previous Paris years to a fluid gestural style, underscored by a deeper, more contrasting palette. He was simultaneously influenced by the Abstract Expressionism of American artists-whose work he came across while teaching in Berkeley in 1962, as well as in Paris-and increasingly drawn towards exploring his Indian roots. As seen in works such as the present lot, Raza lay emphasis on emotion rather than representation: "Thereafter visual reality, the aim to construct a 'tangible' world receded. In its place there was a preoccupation with evoking the essence, the mood of places and of people. (Artist quoted in Geeti Sen, "The Seed and the Fruit: Metaphors in Raza's Painting," S H Raza, Mumbai: Saffronart, 2005, p. 6)

The role of memory and his childhood experiences in India now began to increasingly manifest in his work, which was poised between his past and present. The present lot is composed as two halves, with brighter colours in the upper half signifying light and life, and dark colours in the lower half evoking the darkness of night and the dense forests of Raza's hometown in Madhya Pradesh. The artist perhaps sought to highlight the co-existence of these two opposing aspects - day and night - and has said: "Daybreak brought back a sentiment of security and well-being. On market day, under the radiant sun, the village was a fairyland of colours. And then, the night again. Even today I find that these two aspects of my life dominate me and are an integral part of my paintings." (Artist quoted in Jacques Lassaigne, Raza Anthology 198090, Mumbai: Chemould Publications and Arts, 1991)

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