Sayed Haider Raza 29 March - 21 April 2023
From 29 March – 21 April Grosvenor Gallery will be exhibiting paintings by Indian Modernist painter Sayed Haider Raza. In the late 1940s Raza was one of the founding members of the Bombay Progressive Artist’s Group, who brought modernism to India in the immediate aftermath of Independence. Shortly afterwards he left India for France, settling in Paris and working with Galerie Lara Vincy. His style developed dramatically over time, fusing contemporary artistic styles with Indian aesthetics and inspiration from his upbringing in the forests of Madhya Pradesh.
Grosvenor Gallery are presenting paintings from 1964 – 2003. Highlights include the 1991 canvas Polarite: “Duality was a fundamental element of Raza’s work and he explored such binaries as earth and sky, life and death, pleasure and pain and female and male. This is evident in his work Polarite, 1991, where the latent force of the ebony or white bindu is heightened by being set against the opposing colour making it appear like a magnetic force pulling the viewer in. In this painting it is Raza using ‘the very tints of the spirit’.”
A jewel like oil on board from 1964, recently discovered in Canada is also on display. Composition I was originally sold by Raza’s Canadian gallery, Montreal based Galerie Dresdnere, and has remained in private hands since then, having been given by the as a wedding present in the 1970s. Le Ciel (The Sky), (1966) is a mysterious and atmospheric painting in which one can glimpse the genesis of his characteristic theme of the ‘bindu’, which occupies the artist from the early 1970s until his death. Examples of which can be seen in the paintings L’aube (1991) and Radiations (1993).
On Tuesday 28th the gallery will also be hosting the launch of Volume II of the artist’s Catalogue Raisonne, (covering the period 1972-1989), prepared by Anne Macklin on behalf of the Raza Foundation, India. The first volume was signed off by the artist shortly before his death in 2016 and is the first such project for any artist in South Asia. This is priced at £120.00. Copies of Volumes 1 and 2 are available from the gallery.
Raza is also the subject of a major retrospective exhibition at the Centre Pompidou, Paris which opened on 15 February 2023 and closes on 15 May. This is the last major exhibition the Pompidou is holding before the museum closes for 5 years for renovation.
