Important Notice

Non-representative art, particularly in India, is often understood as a means of repudiating worldly pleasure and pain. However, "Raza's practice of symbolic abstraction has demonstrated that abstraction can also articulate an embracing of sringara, a joyous reaching-out experience. The abstractionist need not be a self-denying ascetic or a slave to the stimulations of the senses; rather, he can flourish through a dynamic interplay between these... Non-representative art, particularly in India, is often understood as a means of repudiating worldly pleasure and pain. However, "Raza's practice of symbolic abstraction has demonstrated that abstraction can also articulate an embracing of sringara, a joyous reaching-out experience. The abstractionist need not be a self-denying ascetic or a slave to the stimulations of the senses; rather, he can flourish through a dynamic interplay between these positions, savouring the world as a coded invitation that rewards the deciphering self with an expansion of consciousness" (Ranjit Hoskote, Painting as Japa: Recent Works by S H Raza, Art Musings exhibition catalogue, 2004, not paginated).

Taking geometrical abstraction to unprecedented levels, every colour and shape in Raza's work bears significant meaning, relating to an element of nature or to part of the universal cycle of life and death. "Raza's work assumes a distinctly different meaning from the paintings of colour field vision and from hard-edged abstraction. In his canvases, geometrical forms are used to map the universe. Here, the vocabulary of pure plastic from acquires an integral purpose: to relate the shape and rhythm of these forms to Nature" (Geeti Sen, Bindu: Space and Time in Raza's Vision, Media Transasia Ltd, New Delhi, 1997, p. 118).

"At the epicentre of many of these paintings is a dark, blank void. Emanating from this inner core the forms and shapes are like veins, energising and giving life to the painting. The viewer begins a visual journey outwards from this centre, a journey through the elements of life itself. Raza explains that at the heart of this unique visual language lie the five key symbols of fire and water, earth, wind and sky, brought together within a geometric framework that also contains signifiers of fertility and fruitfulness, all together underlining the inevitable interrelationship of the key components of the universe and the interconnections of our humble lives within it" (S. H. Raza, Saffronart and Berkeley Square Gallery exhibition catalogue, 2005, not paginated).

In the present lot, Raza uses a vivid palette dominated by primary colours to highlight the twin energies of male and female, as a result of whose fusion germination and genesis occur. Apart from the classic tantric symbology of upright and inverted triangles, the artist also alludes to the duality of male and female using variations of the bindu, including the large, dense black bindu at the center, throbbing with the life potential it contains.

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