While going through some of the works of the great master Syed Haider Raza as a response to his death at 94 yesterday I chanced upon this 1963 work. It represents Raza’s view of a village which seems to be splintering. What struck me about the painting though was what he has quoted on the top right in Sanskrit.
It is the iconic Vedic mantra आ नो भद्राः क्रतवो यन्तु विश्वतः (Aano Bhadrah Krtavo Yantu Vishwatah) or “Let noble thoughts come to me from all directions.” That one line could well sum up the painter’s life who spent close to 60 years in France before returning to India in 2002. A grand figure of modern Indian art and a pioneer of the Progressive movement Raza was among those great names that created a new Indian aesthetic the way the Impressionists did in Paris in the 19th century. It was somewhat poetic that Paris is where Raza spent such an extended part of his life.
Raza along with Maqbool Fida Husain, Francis Newton Souza,, Krishna Howlaji Ara, Hari Ambadas Gade, and S Bakre, a sculptor, founded the the Progressive Artists Group.While Husain and Souza appeared to capture a certain ferment in their lines, Raza was more into capturing a calm symmetry. I found a 1951 work of his titled “Carcassone” of a French town that showcased his sense of symmetry even while avoiding being an engineering drawing. You can see the same sense of being anchored or settled in the untitled work from 1983/84.
Carcassone, S H Raza, 1951
Untitled 1983/84, Raza
Although tributes to Raza prominently mention his famous Bindu (Point) series which drew on the concentrated singularity of a point that was as philosophical as spiritual to him, Raza’s early decades were characterized by a lot of landscape and other kinds of works. The artist who drew him to Paris was Paul Cézanne (1839–1906), widely regarded as the founder of modern art.
Much of his work comes across as self-consciously free of clutter and complication even though his geometrical lines are very hard to emulate. Take the untitled work above, for instance. As simple as it seems it is rather complex to reproduce. One gets the sense that even Raza himself may have found it hard duplicate it.
In his passing, India has lost a truly pluralist artist who lived by the idea of letting noble thoughts come from all directions.