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Saffronart | Evening Sale
34
S H RAZA
(1922 ‒ 2016)
Untitled
Signed and dated ‘Raza ‘77’ (lower right); inscribed ‘Raza
1977 6F’ (on the reverse)
1977
Oil on canvas
16.25 x 13 in (41.3 x 33.3 cm)
Rs 12,00,000 ‒ 15,00,000
$ 18,185 ‒ 22,730
PROVENANCE:
Acquired from the artist’s studio in Gorbio
Private Collection, Norway
Christie’s, New York, 16 September 2008, lot 215
Private Collection, UAE
97
The present lot was created during a time of transition
for Raza, as he grew closer to the use of geometry
and the Bindu that emerged in his later works. The
colour and composition of
La Terre / The Earth (Green)
demonstrates his earlier gestural brushwork, but also
has distinct elements of structure and geometry.
Though the loose brushwork remains, it is now
circumscribed within a definite frame composed of
solid, horizontal and vertical lines of colour. Dark, multi‒
hued greens frame the inner composition that is subtly
divided vertically into two, and is both reminiscent of
traditional miniature painting and indicative of the
changes that were soon to transform Raza’s idiom.
In 1978, Raza was invited by the Madhya Pradesh
government to present an exhibition of his works—
an event that was a huge success and once again
placed the artist firmly within the modern Indian art
landscape. His hometown in Madhya Pradesh was a
recurring subterranean image in his works during this
time. Rajasthan, “the land of deserts, miniatures and
colours” (Ashok Vajpeyi ed.,
A Life in Art: S.H. Raza
,
New Delhi: Art Alive Gallery, 2007, p. 114) too, was a
huge influence, particularly in way of the tradition of
miniature paintings it offered. While he never painted a
miniature work, Raza employed the dominant colours
and different divisive techniques of miniature painting
on to his canvases.