SH Raza dies at 94, end of an era in Modern Indian art

File photo of S.H. Raza (right) with fellow-Progressive artist Ramkumar (left) and gallerist Arun Vadehra. (Photo courtesy: Raza Foundation/Facebook)

With the demise of S.H. Raza, the last member of the Bombay Progressive Artists’ Group, curtains fall on an unparalleled era of excellence in contemporary Indian art After battling it out in the ICU for the past two months, legendary modern master Syed Haider Raza breathed his last yesterday morning. He was 94. The artist, whose career spanned more than half a century, began his journey on canvas as an expressionist painter. He co-founded the revolutionary Bombay Progressive Artists’ Group in 1947, along with his contemporaries F.N. Souza and K.H. Ara. In 1950, Raza moved to France and continued to work from there. However, he never lost ties with his motherland, as he continued to support aspiring artists through the Raza Foundation.

“We were expecting the news, sooner or later, since he was on ventilator for a while. But it always comes as a shock,” said poet, cultural theorist and curator Ranjit Hoskote. He fondly remembers many of the artist’s qualities as a person, which set him apart in his eyes, such as how he embraced both the European and the Indian cultures after going to France. He also praises the Raza Foundation, which has supported many young artists, dancers and writers. “He was a pioneer in his altruistic sensibilities. It is unfortunate that the general audience gets to hear of him only when there’s news of high-priced auction of his paintings, because his work was never static,” Hoskote laments.

“Those who are able to find their own language through art are exceptional. When they pass away, you feel the loss as a fellow artist whether or not they have been a direct influence on your work. That is how I feel today,” says Sunil Gawde, who is known for the modern and edgy depictions of Mumbai in his art. Unlike Gawde, internationally acclaimed painter and artist-curator, Bose Krishnamachari feels the loss more personally, “I remember when I was in the J.J. School of Art, he used to come every year to promote the young up-and-coming artists. I used to spend time with him showing him around the college and I also showed him my art. He was a soft-spoken, articulate gentleman who seemed to weigh every word he spoke. He encouraged many young artists while there,” the artist remembers. Krishnamachari confesses to being a great admirer of Raza’s highly methodical bent of mind, even as an artist. “He was very meticulous and kept a record of every painting he had ever painted in his own personal archives. I remember thinking that I would like to be that methodical,” he says.

Whether as an expressionist painter or as an abstract artist, it was his vivid use of colour that set this modern master apart from his contemporaries. For art critic Alka Raghuvanshi, it is Raza’s innate sense of logic and simplicity as a person that make him as precious, as his sense of colour. “I have always been fascinated by his Bindu series and many of the landscapes, which he has drawn using European sensibilities. I think, he surpassed the European artists,” she says. Many artists believe that in myriad ways the Bindu signified Raza’s rebirth as a painter. In the 1970s, he was beginning to get restless and dissatisfied with his own work and was in search of a new direction to take his art forward. His trips to India took him to Ajanta, Ellora, Benaras, Gujarat and Rajasthan, where he studied his motherland’s culture more closely and it all culminated in the Bindu.

More than his innumerable honours and million-dollar paintings, it is the artist’s indomitable spirit and hunger to create that he will always be remembered by, says Hoskote, while parting with an anecdote. “Towards the end of last year, when I had last met him, even though he was quite frail, there was an incredible robust energy in his eyes, he was sitting with his brushes, palettes and papers. Of course he wasn’t in a shape to make vast canvasses, but his image-making impulse was pretty much intact,” Hoskote recalls.