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Lot Essay
“In Raza’s works the spiritual power acquires its modest pictorial form in a kind of cosmic egg, in black colour, the point of departure for any creation and work of art. All life stems from this source. As if coming out of the blinding light, it transforms and finally incarnates; in form and colour, vibration and sound, energy and power, space and time” (F. Mennekes, ‘Soft Polarity’, S.H. Raza: Paintings from 1966 to 2003, Berlin, 2003, unpaginated).
The present lot, painted in 1989, is an important work marking Raza’s turn to geometric abstraction in his longstanding exploration of the landscape and nature through art. While earlier compositions were marked by Raza’s fluid, gestural brushstrokes, the notion was soon adapted to the planned, geometrical pictorial structures that characterized his paintings from the 1980s onward; first using an earthy palette of browns and ochres and then embracing primary colors and their association with the elements of nature. In this vertical composition, Raza pushes his non-representational idiom to its limits, assembling color sequences and shapes in a fine, geometric composition. Nevertheless, the concept of nature remains pervasive and integral in this work. The painting melds a pattern of horizontals and chevrons with the bindu, or the black circle at the center, interpreted as the void or seed where genesis takes place. Natural elements such as water and sky are channeled through the artist’s vibrant palette of blue and green, and the inverted triangle beneath the bindu symbolizes prakriti, the female polarity of the cosmos representing germination and creation.
Using a luminous spectrum of light and color, Raza creates a hypnotic visual diagram that synthesizes the potent symbolism of color from Eastern and Western iconographical histories. He explains, “I have interpreted the universe in terms of five primary colours: black, white, red, blue and yellow. A total chromatic expression can be achieved by mixing primary colours with other secondary colours, such as greens, browns, and ochres. From there you can move to a great austerity of colours till you come to a supreme purity of form” (Artist statement, G. Sen, Bindu: Space and Time in Raza’s Vision, New Delhi, 1997, pp. 127-128).
In terms of methodical repetition and concentric sequencing, a link can be made between the present lot and works by American abstract artists like Frank Stella and Kenneth Noland. However, while Stella and Noland sought to eradicate subjective emotion in their practice, Raza’s works are suffused with a deep spirituality. “There is an implicit sense of timelessness which is all-pervasive, which brings a different meaning to his pictures. There is no reference here, as with his earlier work [...] Instead he has ‘abstracted’ from nature its essence, its deeper implications for mankind” (G. Sen, Bindu: Space and Time in Raza’s Vision, New Delhi, 1997, p. 27).
The present lot, painted in 1989, is an important work marking Raza’s turn to geometric abstraction in his longstanding exploration of the landscape and nature through art. While earlier compositions were marked by Raza’s fluid, gestural brushstrokes, the notion was soon adapted to the planned, geometrical pictorial structures that characterized his paintings from the 1980s onward; first using an earthy palette of browns and ochres and then embracing primary colors and their association with the elements of nature. In this vertical composition, Raza pushes his non-representational idiom to its limits, assembling color sequences and shapes in a fine, geometric composition. Nevertheless, the concept of nature remains pervasive and integral in this work. The painting melds a pattern of horizontals and chevrons with the bindu, or the black circle at the center, interpreted as the void or seed where genesis takes place. Natural elements such as water and sky are channeled through the artist’s vibrant palette of blue and green, and the inverted triangle beneath the bindu symbolizes prakriti, the female polarity of the cosmos representing germination and creation.
Using a luminous spectrum of light and color, Raza creates a hypnotic visual diagram that synthesizes the potent symbolism of color from Eastern and Western iconographical histories. He explains, “I have interpreted the universe in terms of five primary colours: black, white, red, blue and yellow. A total chromatic expression can be achieved by mixing primary colours with other secondary colours, such as greens, browns, and ochres. From there you can move to a great austerity of colours till you come to a supreme purity of form” (Artist statement, G. Sen, Bindu: Space and Time in Raza’s Vision, New Delhi, 1997, pp. 127-128).
In terms of methodical repetition and concentric sequencing, a link can be made between the present lot and works by American abstract artists like Frank Stella and Kenneth Noland. However, while Stella and Noland sought to eradicate subjective emotion in their practice, Raza’s works are suffused with a deep spirituality. “There is an implicit sense of timelessness which is all-pervasive, which brings a different meaning to his pictures. There is no reference here, as with his earlier work [...] Instead he has ‘abstracted’ from nature its essence, its deeper implications for mankind” (G. Sen, Bindu: Space and Time in Raza’s Vision, New Delhi, 1997, p. 27).