Important Notice

Although nature has always inspired S.H. Raza's work, it was only during the mid-1980s that the artist began to overtly depict its five basic elements in various combinations and manifestations using geometric forms and bright, primary colours. In using this non-representative idiom, based on ancient Indian concepts relating to nature and its forces, "…Raza turns away from the external to the internal substance. There is an implicit sense of... Although nature has always inspired S.H. Raza's work, it was only during the mid-1980s that the artist began to overtly depict its five basic elements in various combinations and manifestations using geometric forms and bright, primary colours. In using this non-representative idiom, based on ancient Indian concepts relating to nature and its forces, "…Raza turns away from the external to the internal substance. There is an implicit sense of timelessness which is all-pervasive, which brings a different meaning to his pictures. There is no reference here, as with his earlier work…Instead he has 'abstracted' from nature its essence, its deeper implications for mankind" (Geeti Sen, Bindu: Space and Time in Raza's Vision, Media Transasia, New Delhi, 1997, p. 27). In the present lot, Raza's aqueous, cool palette refers to the element water and its feminine generative capacities, while the series of images, read from top to bottom, symbolize the process of genesis, germination and growth from a bija or seed, represented by the solid black bindu in the top panel, to a full grown tree in the lowest panel.

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