Important Notice

Beginning in the late 1970s, S.H. Raza turned to ancient Indian symbolism and its logical language of colour and shape, as a vehicle for his interpretations of the universe and its processes. Centering the unique idiom he developed on the bindu, the simple dot that he was introduced to by a school teacher as a concentration aid, Raza soon built an entire non-representative vocabulary with which he could reach out to the world.

As... Beginning in the late 1970s, S.H. Raza turned to ancient Indian symbolism and its logical language of colour and shape, as a vehicle for his interpretations of the universe and its processes. Centering the unique idiom he developed on the bindu, the simple dot that he was introduced to by a school teacher as a concentration aid, Raza soon built an entire non-representative vocabulary with which he could reach out to the world.

As Yashodhara Dalmia explains, “…the Bindu represents the indivisible unity of the static female principle and the male kinetic principle, which together in their unity create the entire universe of matter and spirit. Therefore, it is the smallest unity beyond which energy cannot be condensed. In cosmological terms, it is the creative matrix of the universe, the visva-bija – the world-seed – the central energy from which all things originate and return. The root forms from which yantras or sacred diagrams are constructed are the circle, the triangle and the square. The circle is an expanded Bindu within which lies the notion that time has no beginning or end. The triangle is a primary enclosure since space cannot be bounded by fewer than three lines. Hence, it is feminine power while the triangle, with its apex upwards, denotes the male principle” (The Making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2001, p.162).

The present lot, painted in 2000, underscores Raza’s non-representative vocabulary and geometric symbolism, and resonates with a powerful energy which is doubled by the artist’s evocative palette. Here, the artist ascribes each colour he uses with symbolic meaning, carrying their import beyond the realm of the visual. He explains that in addition to constituting the colour spectrum of the visible world, the primary palette of red, blue, yellow, white and black also represents the fundamental elements of creation – fire, water, earth, sky and air.

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