Grey Landscape
PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF PINAKIN PATEL
Acrylic on canvas
1998
47 1/4 × 23 1/2in. (120 × 59.7 cm.)
Signed and dated ‘RAZA 98’ lower right and further signed, dated and inscribed ‘RAZA / 1998 / 120 X 60 cm / Grey Landscape. / Acrylic on Canvas’ on reverse
PROVENANCE:
Apparao Galleries, Chennai.
‘While still a student, Raza embarked on his career with studies from nature. His near-contemporaries such as Gaitonde will assert even today, ‘Raza painted only landscapes’.’ (Geeti Sen, Mindscapes: Early Works by S.H. Raza 1945-50, exhibition catalogue, Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2001, p. 10)
Drawing on inspiration from his childhood spent in the forests of Barbaria, in Madhya Pradesh, Raza remained engaged with nature and landscapes through most of his artistic career. His early works, deftly executed in gouache and watercolours, were often depictions of the Indian heartland, and were influenced by both 19th Century Indian painting traditions and European modernism. These descriptive landscapes soon gave way to expressionist depictions of the natural world, often abstracted from their immediate geographic context.
On his move to France in the early 1950s, Raza began ‘constructing’ cityscapes. In these near-cubist renditions, Raza pared down the Parisian towns and villages to geometric contours, organised in abstract patterns of colour. The late 1950s saw a change in medium. This shift towards oil revealed a newfound preference for colour over form. Exploiting the tactility of the medium, Raza began painting impasto-ed impressions of the landscape around him. Rather than depicting recognisable forms, these semi- abstract, hallucinatory surrealscapes occupied no particular time or place, and were more concerned with capturing a mood or feeling. ‘His paintings still show houses, spires, trees and other elements of landscape emerging out of colour, which is their true element. The ‘subject’ is irrelevant but the ‘image’ persists.’ (Rudy von Leyden, Raza, Sadanga Series for Vakils, Mumbai, 1959, p. 19)
As his work progresses, these identifiable elements disappear. In 1962, Raza moved to the United States to teach at the University of California at Berkeley. There, he came into contact with the New York school of painters and witnessed, for the first time, the Abstract Expressionism of artists such as Hans Hofmann and Mark Rothko. ‘Rothko’s work opened up lots of interesting associations for me. It was so different from the insipid realism of the European School. It was like a door that opened to another interior vision. Yes, I felt that I was awakening to the music of another forest, one of subliminal energy. Rothko’s works brought back the images of japmala, where the repetition of a word continues till you achieve a state of elevated consciousness... Rothko’s works made me understand the feel for spatial perception.’ (Artist statement, Raza: Celebrating 85 years, exhibition catalogue, Aryan Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2007, unpaginated)
The present lot represents Raza’s final step toward non- representation, by abstracting nature and the elements into a geometry of colour. Internalising the subject of the natural world, Raza explored expressionism in the mood and sensation of a naturescape. Informed by the spatial treatment of Rothko’s colour fields, Grey Landscape, marks his transition from stylised realism to non-objective representation. His palette, settling along the grey scale, expands through tonalities of the same core colour. I want to produce ‘paintings with only black and grey. Then with black, grey, and white. And further still, towards perfect peace, with white and pale grey.’ (Artist Statement, Raza, Paris, 2008, p. 24)
Condition: The colours of the original are much lighter, especially in the tonal variations of the grey. The upper central area is far paler with creamier tones than the catalogue illustrations, and the upper most horizontal line is more grey than black as seen in the catalogue illustration. The lowest edge of the painting is a far lighter tone of grey with the two thinner lines in creamier shades of gray. The lower half of the canvas with some staining to the reverse. When examined under UV light, several small, scattered areas of consolidation with associated retouching are visible. Overall good condition.
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PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF PINAKIN PATEL
Acrylic on canvas
1998
47 1/4 × 23 1/2in. (120 × 59.7 cm.)
Signed and dated ‘RAZA 98’ lower right and further signed, dated and inscribed ‘RAZA / 1998 / 120 X 60 cm / Grey Landscape. / Acrylic on Canvas’ on reverse
PROVENANCE:
Apparao Galleries, Chennai.
‘While still a student, Raza embarked on his career with studies from nature. His near-contemporaries such as Gaitonde will assert even today, ‘Raza painted only landscapes’.’ (Geeti Sen, Mindscapes: Early Works by S.H. Raza 1945-50, exhibition catalogue, Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2001, p. 10)
Drawing on inspiration from his childhood spent in the forests of Barbaria, in Madhya Pradesh, Raza remained engaged with nature and landscapes through most of his artistic career. His early works, deftly executed in gouache and watercolours, were often depictions of the Indian heartland, and were influenced by both 19th Century Indian painting traditions and European modernism. These descriptive landscapes soon gave way to expressionist depictions of the natural world, often abstracted from their immediate geographic context.
On his move to France in the early 1950s, Raza began ‘constructing’ cityscapes. In these near-cubist renditions, Raza pared down the Parisian towns and villages to geometric contours, organised in abstract patterns of colour. The late 1950s saw a change in medium. This shift towards oil revealed a newfound preference for colour over form. Exploiting the tactility of the medium, Raza began painting impasto-ed impressions of the landscape around him. Rather than depicting recognisable forms, these semi- abstract, hallucinatory surrealscapes occupied no particular time or place, and were more concerned with capturing a mood or feeling. ‘His paintings still show houses, spires, trees and other elements of landscape emerging out of colour, which is their true element. The ‘subject’ is irrelevant but the ‘image’ persists.’ (Rudy von Leyden, Raza, Sadanga Series for Vakils, Mumbai, 1959, p. 19)
As his work progresses, these identifiable elements disappear. In 1962, Raza moved to the United States to teach at the University of California at Berkeley. There, he came into contact with the New York school of painters and witnessed, for the first time, the Abstract Expressionism of artists such as Hans Hofmann and Mark Rothko. ‘Rothko’s work opened up lots of interesting associations for me. It was so different from the insipid realism of the European School. It was like a door that opened to another interior vision. Yes, I felt that I was awakening to the music of another forest, one of subliminal energy. Rothko’s works brought back the images of japmala, where the repetition of a word continues till you achieve a state of elevated consciousness... Rothko’s works made me understand the feel for spatial perception.’ (Artist statement, Raza: Celebrating 85 years, exhibition catalogue, Aryan Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2007, unpaginated)
The present lot represents Raza’s final step toward non- representation, by abstracting nature and the elements into a geometry of colour. Internalising the subject of the natural world, Raza explored expressionism in the mood and sensation of a naturescape. Informed by the spatial treatment of Rothko’s colour fields, Grey Landscape, marks his transition from stylised realism to non-objective representation. His palette, settling along the grey scale, expands through tonalities of the same core colour. I want to produce ‘paintings with only black and grey. Then with black, grey, and white. And further still, towards perfect peace, with white and pale grey.’ (Artist Statement, Raza, Paris, 2008, p. 24)
Condition: The colours of the original are much lighter, especially in the tonal variations of the grey. The upper central area is far paler with creamier tones than the catalogue illustrations, and the upper most horizontal line is more grey than black as seen in the catalogue illustration. The lowest edge of the painting is a far lighter tone of grey with the two thinner lines in creamier shades of gray. The lower half of the canvas with some staining to the reverse. When examined under UV light, several small, scattered areas of consolidation with associated retouching are visible. Overall good condition.