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Saffronart | Evening Sale
PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT
PRIVATE COLLECTION, BANGALORE
33
S H RAZA
(1922 ‒ 2016)
La Terre
Signed and dated ‘RAZA ‘68’ (lower right); inscribed
‘RAZA / P. 776 ‘68 / “La terre”’ (on the reverse)
1968
Oil on canvas
39.25 x 39.25 in (100 x 100 cm)
Rs 1,50,00,000 ‒ 2,00,00,000
$ 227,275 ‒ 303,035
PROVENANCE:
Acquired directly from the artist
Galerie Lara Vincy, Paris
Cornette De Saint CYR, Paris, 23 October 2010, lot 9
Grosvenor Gallery, London
Raza’s deep involvement with nature and spirituality has been a rich source for his art over the past seven
decades. The artist, best known for introducing the Bindu into the lexicon of modern Indian art, is also a
master of non‒geometric gestural painting. During the 1950s and ‘60s, Raza made several visits to India from
Paris, where he spent most of his formative years studying art and establishing himself as an artist. These
visits made him realise that “colours have both emotive content and spiritual resonances.” (Ashok Vajpeyi
ed.,
A Life in Art: S.H. Raza
, New Delhi: Art Alive Gallery, 2007, p. 111) From the late ’60s and into the ’80s, Raza
created several series of paintings that were named for specific places or in more notional terms, were based
on nature. Works such as
Matheran
(1976),
Rajasthan
(1975),
Jaipur
(1980), are all rich, earth‒toned hymns
to nature. The present lot,
La Terre
, from 1968 is one of the earlier works, and with its deep and glowing
golds and browns, literally invokes the benevolence of mother earth through its title, ‘The Earth.’ In this large
one‒metre square work, “The vibrancy of color becomes sensuous and physical presence, [is] applied with
a boldness that defies the need for subject matter...” (Geeti Sen,
Bindu: Space and Time in Raza’s Vision
, New
Delhi: Media Transasia Ltd., 1997, p. 76)
Inscription on reverse of painting
EXHIBITED:
Modern and Contemporary Indian Art
,
London: Grosvenor Vadehra,
12 April ‒ 11 May 2007
Bindu Vistaar
, London: Grosvenor Vadehra,
8‒30 June 2012
Raza Peintures
, Paris: Galerie Lara Vincy,
19 October ‒ 29 November 2015
PUBLISHED:
Raza Catalogue Raisonné
, New Delhi:
Vadehra Art Gallery, 2016, p. 170
(illustrated)
The present lot on display at the
Raza Peintures
exhibition at the Galerie Lara Vincy
in Paris, 2015
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