Important Notice

"A viewer dazzled by Raza's gifts of colour could be forgiven for being seduced by the surface beauty of these paintings. But look again: the colours do not lull the eye; they summon it to an active dialogue." (Ranjit Hoskote, "Painting as Japa: Recent Works by SH Raza," Raza: Japa, Art Musings, pg. 1).

Paysage d'Hiver draws the viewer through its luscious use of colours, indicative of winter just setting in, or giving way to... "A viewer dazzled by Raza's gifts of colour could be forgiven for being seduced by the surface beauty of these paintings. But look again: the colours do not lull the eye; they summon it to an active dialogue." (Ranjit Hoskote, "Painting as Japa: Recent Works by SH Raza," Raza: Japa, Art Musings, pg. 1).

Paysage d'Hiver draws the viewer through its luscious use of colours, indicative of winter just setting in, or giving way to spring. Many of Raza's landscapes from the 1960s were inspired by his time spent in the rustic countryside of France. Regarding his use of acrylic colours, "Acrylic lends itself to the language of gesture. The technique allows for fluidity of forms, for radical changes in the picture-for a transformation in his vision that becomes truly miraculous" (Ibid., pg. 79). It was under the stimulus of American abstract expressionists such as Hans Hoffmann, Robert Motherwell and Jackson Pollock whose works he encountered while teaching at the University of Berkeley, California, in 1962, that he began experimenting with acrylic paint. It traces the evolution of his own oeuvre that was entering a transitional phase in the late '60s. More importantly, the work embodies a shift from the temporal landscape to a spiritual internalization or rather, the emotive depiction. The work is identifiable as a landscape only because Raza continues to use the vestige of the title without which it could risk being seen as a pure symphony of colours.

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