Introduction

February 22, 1922. A simple date. But on this ordinary day, a luminary would be born. This legend burned his footprint into the visual art map with the ever-burning flame of his work that transcended the rudimentary boundaries of words. Syed Haider Raza’s work is replete with abstraction yet adroitly unfolding to reveal the pages of his journey. His art unveils the layered spirituality he imbibes with three religious experiences; three distinct cords intertwine to form an unbreakable knot, a unique meld. Raza was Muslim by birth, married to a Christian and socialized and interacted in a Hindu environment (in his nascent years.) 2023 marks the centenary year of Syed Haider Raza. He is lauded as one of the foremost Indian painters, along with contemporaries from the Progressive Art Group in India, such as M.F. Hussain, F.N. Souza and others, creating a unique space for the modern Indian painter in the visual art world map. Raza’s art characterises a confluence of Western expression and Indian symbolism, allowing for the development of a fascinating essay critically examining the spiritual in abstract art. The essay first begins to explore the theme of colour, spirituality and art and takes, for example, the series titled ‘Saurashtra’. The essay then proceeds to analyse complexities of spirituality in an earlier series titled ‘Bindu’- the dot, that conveyed a fascinating intricacy of spiritual thought woven in geometry, colours, lines and brush strokes. Each painting is a rich tapestry that weaves the individual threads of many experiences and perspectives.

Colours, shapes, ideas and experiences

He was a master colourist. He believed art meditates with colour. Colour was the expression of passion and feeling, and colour allowed the painter to meditate. Colour is not merely an expression but a medium for self-expression, self-questioning, and self-exploration.” (Benhamou).

From the perspective of colour psychology, there is a general acceptance that colours impact perceptions, emotions, and mood (Mohr). For Raza, colours were paths to exploring inner spiritual landscapes.

1. https://youtu.be/Cit5cH2vms0

Any lofty, robust tree must have branching and staunch roots. The seed of Raza’s growth was planted in a small village in Madhya Pradesh, India, from where he travelled to Bombay- where thousands of the populace arrived, hoping the urbanscape would give them success. His final destination was France, where he trained, married a French artist, settled, and remained by choice in his life and art ‘Indian’.

Even in childhood, Raza was enchanted by the infinite Elysium of nature that made his hometown of Bambariya thrum with life- the songs of verdant green forests and the sempiternal beauty of the cascading Narmada. This deep affinity for nature and the beauty of the landscape likely pushed him to pursue landscape art, spanning much of his early career. His love for nature is evident through his hunger for colour and artistic ferocity, even when he was a budding artist still lacking the influences he needed to blossom truly.

Raza discovered vision when he travelled to coastal Mumbai, the city of dreams, where the boundless urban landscapes of buildings and the infinity of the sea provided another perspective to his sensibilities. Other journeys, such as the one to Kashmir and then to France, expanded the palette of perceptions. . Raza lived in France for over six decades, where he married a French artist. Still, the magnetic pull of his motherland was irrefutable, so he kept returning home to the land of vibrant, coruscating, living colours. For instance, his famous series ‘Saurashtra' shows evidence. Apart from his experiences, Raza’s sense of color also came from the miniature paintings of India.

Done in the early 1980s, the series of his works ‘Saurashtra’ is all emotional and geometrical expressional painting seeking to capture what poet Ashok Vajpeyi describes of Raza’s work “inheritance and invention, modernity and memory, celebration, and spirituality” (Benhamou, Ashok Vajpeyi, poet and director of the Raza foundation about Raza).

The series ‘Saurashtra’ came after another famous series of Raza’s paintings, ' Bindu’. ‘Saurashtra’ was about the geographical Western arid landscape in the State of Gujarat where people, in contrast to the background, wear vigorously spirited, vibrant riot, living and even psychedelic colours. The painted abstract strokes navigating the geometrical spacing seem inspired by the colours of the Rajasthani miniature paintings between the 16th and 19th centuries. Ochre, crimson, deep-red brown, and green, reminiscent of the dusty, languorous, sultry, dry land with scintillas of green representing occasional oases. Raza writes, “Instead of https://youtu.be/Cit5cH2vms0 being constructions, my paintings from the 1970s are more gestural in techniques, and in terms of colour, too, they are expressionistic. The spontaneity was new and compulsive – I let the canvas grow.” The ‘Saurashtra’ series of Raza’s paintings are abstract, but there is a spiritual 4 journey. These paintings form part of the artist’s transitional phase, where he seeks to explore his inner self and aspires to balance his inner growth and interaction with the outer world. The paintings are representative of his psychic sojourn where “ the distortion of forms and lines correspond to the struggle of his state of mind, a reverse journey from experience to innocence, tracking back his rootedness to the native place, where he was born, weaving the relationship with nature and meadows and the social and cultural landscape.”(Banu)

Some of the most illustrious works of Raza’s repertoire were greatly catalyzed by the “Bindu” incident in his school days when a teacher was disciplining him to soothe the agitation in his mind. He instructed Raza to concentrate on a “Bindu”, a black dot on the classroom wall. Spellbound, Raza spent hours fixated on this ostensibly insignificant dot. He became enthralled by this Bindu, and this would be a recurring symbol in his later works. The hours spent gazing at the dot returned with a force that grew into a phenomenal artistic and spiritual journey, making Raza what he became and is celebrated for.

SH Raza: A retrospective titled 'Traversing Terrains' illuminates the artist's legacy, and his art over 50 years – Firstpost

Saurashtra Series: Raza's Metaphysical Journey towards Indigenous Self | Urmila Banu - Academia.edu

Raza left for France in 1950 but returned to India regularly. He would often say that he learned to paint in France and what to paint he learned from India. The Bindu was part of his journey to move away from the Cubist and figurative forms and experiment with expressional art. He needed to address his restless mind, and that was when he returned to his childhood event of gazing at the black dot called Bindu. The Bindu became a larger-than-life multilayered philosophical symbol. “It represented the seed, a natural symbol of fertility, the cyclical nature of the seasons, the circle of life and death that cannot be broken. Spiritually, it signified a powerful source or seat of energy and creation, a point of meditation. Raza has himself described the Bindu as a “...visible form containing all the essential requisites of line, tone, color, texture and space.” (Bordewekar)

S6 Bindu Art Series | The Technique Behind the Famous Paintings by S.H. Raza (laasyaart.com)

Conclusion

“Sayed Haider Raza has set a new record seven years after he died. The Indian Modern artist’s acrylic on canvas Gestation (1989) fetched ₹51.75 crore, including commissions, at Pundole Auction House a little over a week ago, making it the most expensive Indian artwork ever sold at auction.”

The demand for his artwork is testimony to the importance of his legacy. To celebrate his centenary, the Raza Foundation ( an arts and culture organization established in 2001 by Raza which aims to create dialogic spaces for various arts, poetry, ideas, etc.), along with Centre Pompidou in Paris, organised an exhibition (15 February-15 May 2023). It was specially curated to demonstrate Raza’s free-flowing and unfettered oeuvre, including early works from his days in the Sir J.J. School of Art. The exhibition aimed to establish the role of Sayed Haider Raza as a significant artist who bridged Western and South Asian sensibilities, artistic genres, styles, techniques, aesthetics and philosophical and spiritual ideas. Raza was decorated in India; he received the fourth highest civilian award, the Padma Shri, in 1981, the Fellowship of the Lalit Kala Academi ( the National Academy of Visual Arts in India) in 1984, the third highest civilian award, Padma Bhushan in 2007 and Padma Vibhushan the second highest civilian honour in 2013. Raza left his mortal body on July 23rd, 2016. “The Goblin of death in Terry Pratchett’s acclaimed novel Reaper Man famously said: “No one is dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away.” Even a small insignificant pebble can create mammoth ripples. The rich legacy left behind by Raza can testify (https://www.sothebys.com/en/artists/sayed-haider-raza) to the numerous perennial ripples which continue to stir and give directions to others. A mute witness to this is the painting he was making before his death, which rests on the easel for posterity ( in his studio in Delhi). “A black circle whirling on its axis would begin its journey, rising from an ocean of white, and dynamise the room.” The last unfinished painting seems to 8 be the high point of Raza’s flying soul recreating his abstractly painted spiritual journey!

Sayed Haider Raza: The Journey of an Iconic Artist By Yashodhara Dalmia

The Indian Eye - Articulate

Bibliography

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