Important Notice

Lot 25

 

Quick Zoom

Over his seven-decade career, S H Raza made several intentional shifts in his compositions in his search for a non-representational abstraction. His goal was to distil nature and the universe to their essence by using pure colour and geometric forms rooted in Indian spiritual thought, the most significant of which was the bindu. For Raza, this black circle represented a meditative point which symbolised the bija or seed, the source... Over his seven-decade career, S H Raza made several intentional shifts in his compositions in his search for a non-representational abstraction. His goal was to distil nature and the universe to their essence by using pure colour and geometric forms rooted in Indian spiritual thought, the most significant of which was the bindu. For Raza, this black circle represented a meditative point which symbolised the bija or seed, the source of the life force of the cosmos. The present lot demonstrates his intention to further refine the bindu to its purest form by shifting from a palette of intense primary colours to a predominantly monochromatic one of pale yellows and browns, white, and grey. Explaining this phase that he arrived at in the mid-1990s, he wrote, “As one advances towards maturity, perception becomes clearer, one says the same thing in the same sentence with minimum words. In painting, it is with lesser forms and lesser colours. It is the desire to eliminate what is not essential, a desire to aim at simplicity. Simplicity is the essence of perfection…With age comes a certain sense of detachment, a certain renouncing. I started to use only two colours, black and white.” (S H Raza, “Itinerary S. H. Raza”, Ashok Vajpeyi ed., Sayed Haider Raza, Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing in association with The Raza Foundation, 2023, p. 95)

Raza likened the repetition of geometric forms in his work to the meditative practice of chanting a mantra while using a japa mala or prayer beads as a way to elevate one’s consciousness. According to Indian metaphysical thought, the resonant sound produced as a result is expressed as naad or a primordial sound with both perceptible and imperceptible qualities. He explored the relationship between the bindu and naad in works like the present lot using the image of concentric circles of energy radiating from the centre of the canvas. At the centre of the bindu is the symbol OM, which in Hinduism represents the sacred sound of the universe. Art historian Michel Imbert remarks, “In the next stage of the Bindu and its various manifestations led Raza along the path to truth… This journey still goes on, his attempts at purification lately culminated in his White Period. White canvases are not un-painted canvases. On the contrary, they reveal a very sophisticated geometric construction, leading to a pure and serene harmony, to Peace of the Shanti Rasa. Of the nine emotions this is, according to Indian thought, the most difficult to achieve. It calls for years of sustained effort, research and expression, both in life and in artistic pursuits.” (Michel Imbert, “1987–2006 A Focus on ‘Black’ ‘Blue’ and ‘White’ & the Evolving Bindu”, Ashok Vajpeyi ed., Sayed Haider Raza, Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing in association with The Raza Foundation, 2023, p. 265)

Read More
Artist Profile
Other works of this artist in: this auction  |  entire site