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Saffronart | Evening Sale
1920‒30s
22 February 1922
•
Syed Haider Raza was born in the village of Babariya in
Madhya Pradesh
1927
•
Starts primary school education
1932
•
Graduates from primary school, where teacher Nandlal
Jharia introduced him to the concept of the Bindu as
a point of concentration; Raza and his family move to
Damoh
1939
•
Graduates from high school in Damoh, and joins the
Nagpur School of Art in Maharashtra
1940s
1943
•
Graduates from the Nagpur School of Art and moves to
Bombay; Joins the Sir J J School of Art as a private student
and officially enrols as a regular student in his fifth year;
Studies under M Kulkarni at the Mohan Arts Club and
meets several artists, including Shiavax Chavda and K
K Hebbar; Joins Express Block Studio as a designer; Two
watercolours selected for a group show at the Bombay
Art Society, and mentioned by Rudolf von Leyden in his
Times of India
review of the show
1946
•
First solo exhibition at the Bombay Art Society’s Salon;
wins the Silver Medal
1947
•
Mother passes away in Bombay; Co‒founds the Bombay
Progressive Artists’ Group (PAG) with F N Souza and H
A Gade
1948
•
Father passes away in Mandala; Raza graduates from the
Sir J J School of Art; Invited to tour Kashmir by Sheikh
Abdullah; Meets Henri Cartier‒Bresson in Srinagar, who
advises him to incorporate structure into his paintings;
Solo exhibition of Kashmir landscapes in New Delhi;
Wins Bombay Art Society Gold Medal; Visits exhibition
of ancient Indian sculpture in New Delhi, and sees prints
by artists including Matisse and Picasso at the French
Consulate in Bombay
1949
•
First exhibition of the Progressive Artists’ Group in
Bombay, inaugurated by Dr. Mulk Raj Anand
Forests of Madhya Pradesh
Source: LRBurdak via Wikimedia Commons
Image courtesy of Ruxana Pathan
85
1950s
1950
•
Sails to Marseilles, France, with fellow PAG artist Akbar
Padamsee; then to Paris
1951
•
Joins the École des Beaux Arts, studying under Edmond
Heuze
1952
•
First exhibition in Paris at Galerie St. Placide with fellow
PAG artists Souza and Padamsee
1955
•
Contracts with Galerie Lara Vincy to exhibit exclusively
with them for the next six years; Oils become primary
painting medium
1956
•
Awarded the Prix de La Critique, the only foreign artist to
achieve this honour in France
1959
•
Marries French artist Janine Mongillat; First trip back to
India with his wife; Bal Chhabda organises an exhibition
of his works at Gallery 59, Bombay
© S H Raza
S H Raza,
Untitled
(
Village Scene
), 1956
Saffronart, New Delhi, 8 September 2016, lot 31
Left to right: F N Souza, Akbar Padamsee and S H Raza in Montparnasse,
Paris, 1952
Reproduced from Alain Bonfand,
Raza
, Paris: Editions de la Difference, 2008