S. H. Raza

Padma Vibhushan
Syed Haider Raza

Syed Haider Raza
Born (1922-02-22) 22 February 1922
Babaria, Central Provinces and Berar
British India
Nationality Indian
Known for Painter
Awards Padma Vibhushan 2013
Padma Bhushan 2007
Fellow, Lalit Kala Akademi 1981

Syed Haider Raza Alias S.H. Raza (born 22 February 1922) is an Indian artist who has lived and worked in France since 1950, but maintains strong ties with India.[1]

His works are mainly abstracts in oil or acrylic, with a very rich use of color, replete with icons from Indian cosmology as well as its philosophy.[2][3] He was awarded the Padma Shri and Fellowship of the Lalit Kala Akademi[4] in 1981, Padma Bhushan in 2007,[5] and Padma Vibhushan in 2013.[6] He was conferred with the highest French civilian honour, the Commandeur de la Legion d'honneur (Legion of Honour) on July 14, 2015.[7]

He became one of India's priciest modern artist on 10 June 2010 when a seminal work, Saurashtra by the 88-year-old was sold for ₹ 16.42 crore ($3,486,965) at a Christie's auction.[8][9]

Early life and education

Watercolor and gouache painting (1948). Private collection.

Syed Haider Raza was born in Babaria,[10] Mandla district, Madhya Pradesh, to Sayed Mohammed Razi, the Deputy Forest Ranger of the district and Tahira Begum,[11][12] and it was here that he spent his early years and took to drawing at age 12; before moving to Damoh also in Madhya Pradesh at 13,[13] where he completed his school education from Government High School, Damoh.[14]

After high school, he studied further at the Nagpur School of Art, Nagpur (1939–43), followed by Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay (1943–47),[15] before moving to France in October 1950 to study at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts (ENSB-A) in Paris, 1950-1953 on a Govt. of France scholarship.[16] After his studies, he travelled across Europe, and continued to live and exhibit his work in Paris.[14] He was later awarded the Prix de la critique in Paris in 1956, becoming the first non-French artist to receive the honour.[17]

Art career

Early career

Syed Haider Raza, had his first solo show in 1946 at Bombay Art Society Salon, and was awarded the Silver Medal of the society.[11]

His work evolved from painting expressionistic landscapes to abstract ones. From his fluent water colours of landscapes and townscapes executed in the early 40's, he moved toward a more expressive language, painting landscapes of the mind.

1947 proved to be a very important year for him. First, his mother died. Then, he co-founded the revolutionary Bombay Progressive Artists' Group (PAG) (1947–1956) [17] along with K. H. Ara and F.N. Souza.[18] This group set out to break free from the influences of European realism in Indian art and bring Indian inner vision (Antar gyan) into the art,.[19] The group had its first show in 1948.[4] Raza's father died the same year in Mandla. And the majority of his four brothers and sister, migrated to Pakistan, after the partition of India.

Once in France, he continued to experiment with currents of Western Modernism, moving from Expressionist modes towards greater abstraction and eventually incorporating elements of Tantrism from Indian scriptures.[19][20][21] Whereas his fellow contemporaries dealt with more figural subjects, Raza chose to focus on landscapes in the 1940s and 50s, inspired in part by a move to France.

In 1962, he became a visiting lecturer at the University of California in Berkeley, USA.[22] Raza was initially enamored of the bucolic countryside of rural France. Eglise is part of a series which captures the rolling terrain and quaint village architecture of this region. Showing a tumultuous church engulfed by an inky blue night sky, Raza uses gestural brushstrokes and a heavily impasto-ed application of paint, stylistic devices which hint at his later 1970s abstractions.

The 'Bindu' and beyond

By the 1970s Raza had grown increasingly unhappy and restless with his own work and wanted to find a new direction and deeper authenticity in his work, and move away from what he called the 'plastic art'. His trips to India, especially to caves of Ajanta - Ellora, followed by those to Benaras, Gujarat and Rajasthan, made him realize his role and study Indian culture more closely, the result was 'Bindu',[23] which signified his rebirth as a painter.[24] The Bindu [25][26][27] came forth in 1980, and took his work deeper and brought in, his new-found Indian vision and Indian ethnography. One of the reasons he attributes to the origin of the 'Bindu', have been his elementary school teacher, who on finding him lacking adequate concentration, drew a dot on the blackboard and asked him to concentrate on it.[28]

After the introduction of 'Bindu' (a point or the source of energy), he added newer dimensions to his thematic oeuvre in the following decades, with the inclusion of themes around the Tribhuj (Triangle),[29] which bolstered Indian concepts of space and time, as well as that of 'prakriti-purusha' (the female and the male energy), his transformation from an expressionist to a master of abstraction and profundity, was complete.[19]

“ "My work is my own inner experience and involvement with the mysteries of nature and form which is expressed in colour, line, space and light".
- S. H. Raza		 ”

The unique energy vibrating with color in his early landscapes are now more subtle but equally, if not more, dynamic. Raza abandoned the expressionistic landscape for a geometric abstraction and the 'Bindu'.[4] Raza perceives the Bindu as the center of creation and existence progressing towards forms and color as well as energy, sound, space and time.

His work took another leap in 2000, when he began to express his increasingly deepened insights and thoughts on Indian spiritual, and created works around the Kundalini,[30] Nagas [31] and the Mahabharat.[23][32]

Public contributions

He has also founded the 'Raza Foundation' in India for promotion of art among Indian youth, which also gives away Annual Raza Foundation Award, to young artists in India .[33]

Personal life

S. H. Raza married Janine Mongillat, his fellow student at Ecole de Beaux Arts in Paris and later became a well-known artist and sculptor. They married in 1959, and at the request of her mother not to leave France, Raza chose to remain.[34] Janine died on 5 April 2002 in Paris.[35]

Awards

Exhibitions

Further reading 

Life and Art of Raza, by Sayed Haider Raza, Ashok Vajpeyi (Ed.). 2005, Rajkamal Books. ISBN 81-267-1040-3.

(French and English Edition. Lithographs edited by Éditions de la Différence, Paris)

References

  1. ↑ Syed Haider Raza turns 85 The Hindu, 21 Feb 2007.
  2. ↑ Painting is like sadhana... dnaindia, 18 September 2005.
  3. ↑ Artist Details Raza at serigraphstudio.com.
  4. 1 2 3 Lalit Kala Ratna Profiles Official list of Awardees at lalitkala.gov.in.
  5. ↑ Padma Bhushan Awardees
  6. ↑ "Padma Awards". pib. 29 January 2013. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
  7. ↑ "Noted artist Raza conferred highest French civilian honour". The Hindu. 15 July 2015. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  8. ↑ "Raza work fetches record Rs 16.3cr". Times of India. 11 June 2010. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  9. ↑ Raza's Saurashtra Artwork and Auction details OSIANAMA.COM
  10. ↑ Biography shraza.net, the Official website.
  11. 1 2 Artist Bio Raza Retrospective 2007, New York.
  12. ↑ Profiles S H Raza at delhiartgallery.com.
  13. ↑ Profile of the Month Sayed Haider Raza at indianartcircle.com.
  14. 1 2 Artist Summary Sayed Haider Raza at artfact.com.
  15. ↑ Artist Background
  16. ↑ Artist Directory S H Raza at art.in.
  17. 1 2 S. H. Raza at vadehraart.com.
  18. ↑ Artist Details Raza at saffronart.com.
  19. 1 2 3 Art & Culture indiaenews.com, 20 February 2008.
  20. ↑ Indian Heroes S. H. Raza at iloveindia.com.
  21. ↑ Raza’s runes: visions of the self Swapna Vora at asianart.com.
  22. ↑ Artist Biography Raza at osbornesamuel.com.
  23. 1 2 Retrospective 2007 A Conversation with Raza at saffronart.com.
  24. ↑ Foreword Raza Retrospective, 2007.
  25. ↑ Raza's Bindu Artwork Image and Auction details OSIANAMA.COM
  26. ↑ Raza's Bindu Artwork Image and Auction details OSIANAMA.COM
  27. ↑ Raza's Bindu Artwork Image and Auction details OSIANAMA.COM
  28. ↑ S H Raza reveals plans to open a cultural centre indianartcollectors.com, 7 February 2008.
  29. ↑ Raza's Triangles Artwork Image and Auction details OSIANAMA.COM
  30. ↑ Raza's Kundalini Artwork Image and Auction details OSIANAMA.COM
  31. ↑ Raza's NAGAS Artwork Image and Auction details OSIANAMA.COM
  32. ↑ Raza's Maha Bharata Artwork Image and Auction details OSIANAMA.COM
  33. ↑ Newsmakers The Milli Gazette Online, April 2005.
  34. ↑ Hindustan Times Master strokes, HT City, The Arts, p.10, 23 February 2008.
  35. ↑ Janine Mongillat The Hindu, 9 Apr 2002.

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