Raza Dazzler

At the age of 85, Syed Haider Raza is now easily one of the icons of the Indian art world today.

Written by Geetadoctor

March 10, 2007 12:00 AM IST

4 min read

At the age of 85, Syed Haider Raza is now easily one of the icons of the Indian art world today. There is an epic quality to the journey that S.H. Raza has traveled from a small town in Madhya Pradesh. It resembles the turbulent course that the River Narmada routinely traverses as it tumbles from the obscurity of the Central Indian plateau across the western part of the country into the Arabian Sea. Just as the Narmada scours and polishes small rock forms into the polished oval shapes that are prized as naturally formed Shiva lingas, there have been excellent compilations of the artist8217;s work. From small jeweled box-like creations that showcase his trademark mandala-effect paintings, to posters, silk screened prints on coffee mugs and coasters, to brilliant compendiums of his wonder years starting from the early 8217;80s, when the 8220;Bindu8221; or Black Suns made their appearance, it8217;s as if Raza8217;s work is particularly well suited to being made into objects of popular consumption.

This is where there is a slight shift of emphasis in the current volume. Whereas previously, the images focused on the Raza oeuvre, since these were obviously what contained a certain rapturous quality that could be described as mystical, or which Raza himself defines as being akin to a religious experience, this volume gives equal space to the man. This is apparent on the cover itself, where Raza8217;s face looms across the surface of his painting with striking intensity.

A number of pages have been devoted to reproducing clippings for old newspapers in India, to poems, jottings in Hindi from his diary, letters and thoughts all transcribed in a strong but knotty script that have been facsimiled with ardent devotion. Obviously this is not entirely irrelevant, for as Ashok Vajpeyi tells the reader, using a beautifully scripted text has been a significant part of Raza8217;s work. Or as he enumerates these different influences: 8220;It is always difficult to trace the sources of a painter. In the case of Raza this becomes all the more difficult since he has drawn inspiration and creation provocation from a very rich variety of sources. Apart from visual arts, these sources include poetry, music, Indian thought, ancient Indian art and sculpture, Jain manuscripts, medieval Indian miniature paintings, forests8230; river Narmada and tribals of Madhya Pradesh, the colours of Rajasthan8221; He explains that because Raza is a non-figurative painter, these influences remain in his sub-conscious and cannot be traced since they surface in the most subtle of ways. Raza himself says, echoing his favorite poet, Rumi, 8220;I want to see with my eyes closed.8221;

This is fair enough. What can be said, however, when there are marked resemblances with those artists that have taken the same route such as Akkitham Narayanan and V. Viswanadhan? They not only derived their inspiration from a strong base of traditional Tantric forms in the South, but were Raza8217;s contemporaries in Paris.

Even if we leave aside the artists of the South, there is another person, closer to him, whose thinking and artistic vitality must have had a striking part to play in Raza8217;s development and that is his wife Janine Mongillat who is no more. There is more than enough material about her and the life they made together at Gorbio, a sunlit medieval town in the South of France to satisfy the general reader.

This is a big fish biography of an artist that will satisfy only the small fish.

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