S. H. Raza
S. H. Raza S. H. Raza S. H. Raza S. H. Raza S. H. Raza S. H. Raza S. H. Raza S. H. Raza

S. H. Raza

S. H. Raza

S. H. Raza

1922 - 2016

S. H. Raza

One of India’s most seminal modernists, Syed Haider Raza forged a new language of art by integrating Indian symbolism with Western expression.

Born on 22 February 1922 in Mandla, Madhya Pradesh, he was a student of Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay (1943-47), and one of the first members of the Progressive Artists’ Group, the turning point of his career was his journey to Paris in 1950 on a French government scholarship to study at École Nationale des Beaux-Arts. In 1956, he became the first non-French artist to win the critic’s award, the Prix de la critique.

Raza almost exclusively excluded the human figure from his vocabulary, choosing landscapes instead. In the 1960s, he drifted away from realistic landscapes towards ‘gestural expressionism’, a form of abstraction. Ultimately, Raza’s paintings evolved from his childhood memories of dense forests and the river Narmada, the bright colours of the Indian market, as if drawn towards the black dot—the bindu—drawn by his schoolteacher as an attempt to help him focus and meditate. The imagery transmuted into geometrical lines and intense bursts of colour on canvas in a geometrical exploration of tantra.

Among prominent honours, Raza received the Kalidas Samman, Lalit Kala Akademi’s Lalit Kala Ratna, and the Indian government’s Padma Shri, and Padma Bhushan. His works are among the most high valued works at auctions of Indian art.

After living in France for six decades, Raza shifted to New Delhi in 2010, where he passed away on 23 July 2016.

‘I believe that in the process of painting, superior, divine and powerful sources operate. The artist is only the medium and without these forces art cannot be born’

S. H. RAZA

artworks

dag exhibitions

‘Manifestations V, 75 Artists | 20th Century Indian Art’

DAG, New Delhi, 2011

‘Manifestations VI, 75 Artists | 20th Century Indian Art’

DAG, New Delhi, 2011

‘Indian Landscapes: The Changing Horizon’

DAG, New Delhi, 2012

‘Manifestations VII, 75 Artists | 20th Century Indian Art’

DAG, New Delhi, 2012

‘Manifestations VIII, 75 Artists | 20th Century Indian Art’

DAG, New Delhi, 2012

‘Mumbai Modern: Progressive Artists’ Group 1947 – 2013’

DAG, Mumbai, 2013

‘Indian Abstracts: An Absence of Form’

DAG, New Delhi, 2014; Mumbai and New York, 2015

‘Manifestations X, 75 Artists | 20th Century Indian Art’

DAG, New Delhi, 2014

‘Manifestations XI, 75 Artists | 20th Century Indian Art’

DAG, New Delhi, 2014

‘India Modern: Narratives from 20th Century Indian Art’

DAG, New Delhi, Mumbai and New York, 2015

‘Memory & Identity: Indian Artists Abroad’

DAG, New York, 2016

‘India’s Rockefeller Artists: An Indo-US Cultural Saga’

DAG, New York, 2017; Mumbai, 2018

‘India’s French Connection: Indian Artists in France’

DAG, New Delhi, 2018

‘The Fifties Show’

DAG, New Delhi, 2020

‘The Sixties Show'

DAG, Mumbai, 2020

'Tantra on the Edge: Inspirations and Experiments in Twentieth-Century Indian Art'

DAG, New Delhi and Mumbai, 2022

notable collections

National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi

Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi

Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi

Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation, Mumbai

Piramal Art Foundation, Mumbai

Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Art Collection, Mumbai

Roopankar Museum of Fine Arts, Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal

Central Museum, Nagpur

Kejriwal Museum, Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, Bengaluru

CITI India Corporate Collection

Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts

Musee National d’Art Moderne, Paris

Musee de Grenoble, France

Musee de Menton, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris

Musee Hors du Temps, Pierre-Fu sur Nice, France

Louvre, Abu Dhabi

Musee Ein-Arod, Israel

Asia Society, New York

Glenberra Art Museum, Himeji

Jane and Kito de Boer Collection, Dubai and London

archival media

The Times of India

2 March 1997

The Asian Age

31 January 1999

The Hindustan Times

17 March 2001

The Times of India

4 February 1999

India Today

6 March 2006

The Financial Express on Sunday

25 February 2007

The Economic Times

31 March 2007