100 Years of S H Raza
February 22 – March 05, 2022 at Akar Prakar, Kolkata
Out of the 94 and a half years of his long life, Sayed Haider Raza painted ceaselessly for more than 75 years. Born in a small forest village, he grew to become a modern master of Indian art blurring the inevitable division between living and painting. Until his last breath, Raza lived to paint and painted to live.
A master colourist Raza evolved a personal plastic language in which he explored life, reality and nature. A geometry of origins and essences. In his art, an Indian vision of life merges with the French la sens plastique. He also thoughtfully deviated from the dominant crisis and tension driven modernism, its dissonance to alternative modernity of peace, silence and consonance discovered in humility and tranquillity. In a manner of speaking Raza bypassed history to look at eternity. His art lyrically and meditatively celebrates life. It is a life-enhancing art; sensuous and spiritual simultaneously. Raza would have been a hundred years old on 22nd February 2022. His art would live for many centuries.
- Ashok Vajpeyi
SH Raza | Avtaran | Acrylic on canvas | 24 x 12 in | 2014
SH Raza | Vividha | Acrylic on canvas | 24 x 12 in | 2015
SH Raza | Panch Tatva 3 | Acrylic on canvas | 24 x 24 in | 2016
SH Raza | Laya | Acrylic on canvas | 16 x 16 in | 2014
SH Raza | Vriksha | Acrylic on canvas | 16 x 16 in | 2013
SH Raza | Tree of Life | Acrylic on Canvas | 24 x 12 in | 2015
SH Raza | Vinyas | Acrylic on canvas | 20 x 20 in | 2015
SH Raza | Roopakar | Acrylic on canvas | 16 x 16 in | 2015
SH Raza | Beej Vriksha 2 | | Acrylic on canvas | 32 x 16 in | 2013
SH Raza | Taa te | Acrylic on canvas | 16 x 16 in | 2015
SH Raza | Untitled | Pastel on canvas | 12 x 12 in | 2011
SH Raza | Shabd Bindu | Pen and ink on paper | 16 x 12 in | 2011
SH Raza | Untitled | Pen and ink on paper | 12 x 16 in | 2011
SH Raza | Untitled | Pen and ink on paper | 12 x 16 in | 2011
SH Raza | Untitled | Pen and ink on paper | 12 x 16 in | 2011
SH Raza | Untitled | Pen and ink on paper | 12 x 16 in | 2011
SH Raza | Untitled | Pen and ink on paper | 12 x 16 in | 2011
About S H Raza
Sayed Haider Raza (1922-2016) was born in Madhya Pradesh and studied painting at the Nagpur School of Art, and at the Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay. After receiving a French government scholarship in 1950, he left for Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris. Raza was awarded the Prix de la Critique in Paris in 1956. In 1962, he served as a visiting lecturer at the University of California in Berkeley, USA. Raza was one of the founders of the Progressive Artists’ Group, along with K.H. Ara and F.N. Souza. He participated in numerous exhibitions, including the Sao Paulo Biennale, 1958; the Biennale de Menton, France, 1966, 1968, 1978; and Contemporary Indian Painting, Royal Academy in London, 1982.
His works are mainly abstracts replete with references and icons from Indian cosmology and its philosophy. In 1978, the Madhya Pradesh Government invited him to his native state for homage; and an exhibition of his work was organised in Bhopal. He was elected Fellow of the Lalit Kala Akademi in 1983. In 1997, Raza was awarded the Madhya Pradesh Government’s prestigious Kalidas Samman. He was conferred with the Padma Shree Award in 1981, the Padma Bhushan in 2007, and Padma Vibhushan in 2013.
He passed away in July 2016, in Delhi.