By Parveen Chopra
New York, Sep 18 (IANS) The first ever retrospective in the US of the work of Sayed Haider Raza, one of India’s most prominent and critically acclaimed modernists, opens here on Sep 21 in the artist’s presence.
The retrospective represents Raza’s creative career spanning over six decades and marks the artist’s 85th birthday.
Drawn from key collections around the world, this exhibition represents Raza’s expansive and dynamic oeuvre through some of his most significant creations.
The exhibition organised by Saffronart, a leading online auctioneer of contemporary Indian art, will remain on view till Oct 31 at its gallery in The Fuller Building.
Minal Vazirani, co-founder of Saffronart, said: “Raza’s work from the 1970s to the present, although rooted in ancient aesthetic tradition, transcends geographic and artistic boundaries. His universality has attracted collectors worldwide for decades.”
Since he began painting in the early 1940s, Raza’s subject, style and technique have evolved in distinct stages through his migration to France, his interaction with abstract expressionism and his return to core Indian aesthetics.
In the late 70s, Raza’s focus turned to pure geometrical forms. His images were improvisations on an essential theme: mapping out of a metaphorical space in the mind. The circle or Bindu now became more of an icon, sacred in its symbolism, and placing his work in an Indian context.
A detailed monograph on Raza, cataloguing several thousand of his known works, has also been published.
The retrospective will continue in Mumbai and London next year.