.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
"For all the tragic intensity of its smouldering fires, and the glare of its greenery, the world of Raza hangs in a torrent of potentialities, amid the contending powers of darkness and light." (J. Lassaigne, Raza, Galerie Lara Vincy, Paris, 1958, unpaginated)
During the 1960s, Raza's painting style shifted from an impressionistic brushstroke to a more fluid expressionism following his visiting professorship at the University of California, Berkeley in 1962. The defined depictions of the French and Indian countryside became more fractured and abstracted as Raza experimented with a new mood-evoking style and palette. Jour de Liesse, while not entirely representational, maintains strong Indian connotations in its palette with a composition influenced by the Rajasthani miniatures in the artist's personal collection. The highly textured work evokes the lush forests and landscapes surrounding Raza's boyhood villages in Madhya Pradesh.
"I have never left India. I love my country and I am proud of it, and it's not sentimental my friend. Don't think that it's only emotional. I have been linked with the profound spiritual, religious message that India has to give to Indians and to the world of which we are forgetful at times, even in India.' (Raza cited in 'A conversation with Raza', Raza: A Retrospective, exhibition catalogue, New York, 2007, unpaginated)
Jour de Liesse is a holistic painting that invokes a deep sense of the land and the night by fusing both abstract, representational and even symbolic form into a powerful and mystic expression of the mood and atmosphere of the Indian landscape.
During the 1960s, Raza's painting style shifted from an impressionistic brushstroke to a more fluid expressionism following his visiting professorship at the University of California, Berkeley in 1962. The defined depictions of the French and Indian countryside became more fractured and abstracted as Raza experimented with a new mood-evoking style and palette. Jour de Liesse, while not entirely representational, maintains strong Indian connotations in its palette with a composition influenced by the Rajasthani miniatures in the artist's personal collection. The highly textured work evokes the lush forests and landscapes surrounding Raza's boyhood villages in Madhya Pradesh.
"I have never left India. I love my country and I am proud of it, and it's not sentimental my friend. Don't think that it's only emotional. I have been linked with the profound spiritual, religious message that India has to give to Indians and to the world of which we are forgetful at times, even in India.' (Raza cited in 'A conversation with Raza', Raza: A Retrospective, exhibition catalogue, New York, 2007, unpaginated)
Jour de Liesse is a holistic painting that invokes a deep sense of the land and the night by fusing both abstract, representational and even symbolic form into a powerful and mystic expression of the mood and atmosphere of the Indian landscape.