It’s as though Syed Haider Raza and the bindu are inseparable entities. So linked is the dot to Raza’s work, that one is surprised to discover that the symbol emerged only much later (circa 1970s) in his prolific career. Raza’s work as an artist spanned over six decades right upto a few months before he passed away in July 2016, aged 94. S.H.Raza: Traversing Terrains, by the Piramal Museum of Art that opens this weekend is the biggest exhibition of his works since then. A homage to Raza’s incredible journey as an artist, the show features 35 curated works sourced primarily from the Piramal collection as well as a few borrowed from the Jehangir Nicholson Foundation, CSMVS and a private collection in the U.K.
Building a timeline
What makes the show unique are the additions that introduce audiences to the artist’s life story as a parallel, as well as a behind the scenes engagement with the artwork through – letters, rare photographs and other archival material –that support the narrative. The show tracks Raza’s progress over 50 years from a young art student in 1940s Bombay, to his work well into the mid 1990s. “An exhibition tracing an artist’s growth over decades helps understand the importance of an artist, his/her evolution against a backdrop of personal and professional events and the time in which they lived which gives a greater context in understanding art history in general,” says Ashvin E. Rajagopalan, director Piramal Museum of Art.
The statement is especially true when studying the oeuvre of someone as seminal as Raza, often referred to as a giant of Indian Modern Art. Arriving in Bombay in 1943 to study at the Sir J.J. School of Art, his paintings from this time depict cheek-by-jowl tenements in watercolour and pencil/graphite sketches, reflecting the fluidity and the uninhibited ease of a young mind open to trying new things. “If I think of one aspect that was the most important thing at that time, it was a sense of freedom and experimentation in what we were doing. It didn’t matter if we went wrong. What was important was to try to see what happens,” said Raza of himself and his peers, F.N.Souza, M.F.Hussain, K.H.Ara, H.A.Gade, and S.K.Bakre, who formed the Bombay Progressive Artist’s Group in 1947.
As a 25-year-old in newly independent India, an eager Raza learnt both from intense critical appreciation of his friends’ works as well as the feedback on his own. In addition, as protégé to Austrian Expressionist landscape painter and teacher from Vienna Academy Walter Langhammer (then settled in Bombay) Raza analysed works of masters like Raphael, El Greco as well as Persian, Rajput and Mughal miniatures. He was encouraged to articulate the comparative differences between the works of say a Claude Monet and a Paul Cézanne for example. Winning a scholarship to study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1950, he eventually stayed on in France for the next 60 years only to return finally in 2010, after the passing of his wife, painter Janine Mongillat.
A different world
Raza’s years away saw his work develop in tandem with his learning from crucial art movements of the time in Europe (Impressionism, post-Impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, Expressionism) and later in America (Abstract Expressionism). One can see his fleeting Impressionist landscapes from his travels across India mature into post-Impressionist work that focused on personal expression soon after his move to France. A chance encounter in Srinagar with photographer Henri Cartier Bresson in 1948 had already made Raza aware of the importance of structure and form. The inspiration he needed to build on these elements came from studying the sculpturally inclined and highly subject-oriented work of Cézanne and in time, the bindu and its radiating concentric circles became his very own Mont-Saint Victoire. Colour, always a forte with Raza, played a vital role over the years in its orchestration alongside the use of lines, spaces and proportions to complete his carefully constructed landscapes.
In the endless pursuit of self discovery, Raza found himself returning to his own roots in the later years. He turned to Indian aesthetics and philosophy and read Hindi poetry copiously. Deep seated memories of his native Babaria and Mandla in Madhya Pradesh where he spent the first 12 years of his life also came floating to the fore. “…ultimately I found that I had an access to my childhood, to the forests, to nature which nourished me in my early years”, said Raza about this time in his life. From somewhere within this inner tumult, emerged the bindu. First as a point of focus, and then as a seed that holds the infinite potential of growth and power from which everything emerges.
Point of focus
To understand Raza’s later works beyond just a play of colour and geometric forms, one needs to understand his process. S.H.Raza: Traversing Terrains is an attempt to make this both interesting and accessible, by challenging conventional ways of displaying art. Designed by critically acclaimed exhibition designers Gallagher & Associates , the show’s overhead view has been designed to look like a Raza painting. “The design of the exhibition simulates the structure of a Raza painting with its prominent geometric forms. It allows viewers to literally walk into a Raza painting in a way and experience it spatially,” says Vaishnavi Ramanathan, curator and art historian, Piramal Museum of Art. There’s also, a unique ‘touch and feel’ section that allows viewers to discover three of Raza’s key works in a tactile, sensory way.
The show will be ongoingfrom June 24 to October 28 at the Piramal Museum of Art
