84-85 / 192
84
85
T
he emotive qualities of nature combine with
the spiritual intellect of geometry in this
1982 painting by Raza. The square format
canvas was created when Raza was still painting his
La Terre
series of abstract gestural works but had
also discovered the beauty of geometry. Though the
loose brushwork is still visible, it is now circumscribed
within a definite frame composed of solid frames of
colour. The composition that is subtly divided into
four quarters hints at the compositional techniques of
traditional miniature painting and is at the same time
indicative of the changes that were soon to transform
Raza’s idiom.
The painting is dominated by the black circle at the
centre, which eventually came to be immortalised
in Raza’s
bindu
paintings. This circle of darkness
is surrounded by a series of square frames which
expand the frame of vision. The layered composition
is heightened by the largely hidden abstract painting
that seems to lie beneath and can only be seen in one
of the bands of radiating squares.
This work was included among a group of paintings
in an exhibition organised by the Loeb Gallery in Bern
in 1982. According to art critic Rudy von Leyden,
who attended this exhibition, Raza’s art “emerges
as an entity of vibrating power, metamorphosis
incarnate, unchangeable and ever changing like
the forces of nature reflected in the human mind.”
(“Metamorphosis,”
Raza
,
Mumbai:
Chemould
Publications and Arts, 1985) At this exhibition where
the present lot was acquired, all the paintings were
sold, acquired mostly by Swiss expats who had some
connection to India. In the works exhibited there,
including the present lot, Raza displayed the depth
and versatility that were to be the hallmarks of his
remarkable career as a deeply spiritual artist.
© S H Raza Foundation