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Lot 37

 

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"By very simple means, I am convinced, one can attain infinity."
- S H RAZA

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Raza began to frequently travel to India, and this prompted him to question the "Indianness" of his work. The period of travel and self-reflexivity that followed ushered in a deeper engagement with forms, colours and philosophies rooted in his home country. The shift from his earlier gestural style to this... "By very simple means, I am convinced, one can attain infinity."
- S H RAZA

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Raza began to frequently travel to India, and this prompted him to question the "Indianness" of his work. The period of travel and self-reflexivity that followed ushered in a deeper engagement with forms, colours and philosophies rooted in his home country. The shift from his earlier gestural style to this newfound geometric vocabulary prompted Raza to claim to have been reborn as an artist. The circle, which has held a place of reverence in ancient cultures around the world through the ages, began to become a focal point in his art.

Since then, Raza's paintings have alluded to nature, which would continue to remain an integral part of his work. As Rudolf von Leyden said, "Nature became to Raza something not to be observed or to be imagined but something to be experienced in the very act of putting paint on canvas." (Raza, Mumbai: Vakil and Sons Ltd, 1979). The artist also drew from Indian philosophical, spiritual and mythical concepts, and turned to his native languages, increasingly using Hindi and Sanskrit terms as titles for his works.

The title of the present lot, literally translated as "blue throat," is one of the names for Shiva, arising from an incident wherein he consumed an immensely toxic poison from the ocean and held it in his throat, thus saving all life and creation. Raza represents the churning waters in alternating, concentric spirals of vivid blue and black, spreading from a central interlocking form that recalls a wave, as well as the opposing yet balancing forces of yin and yang.

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