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Lot Essay
Painted in 1964, Le Lac belongs to a key period in Raza's career, during which he began to experiment with a less structured pictorial space and explored the translucent play of color in nature.
In 1962, while teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, Raza was deeply impacted by the work of the Abstract Expressionists Sam Francis, Hans Hoffman and Mark Rothko. Describing how his encounter with Rothko’s work changed his vision, he notes, “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 elated consciousness. Rothko's works made me understand the feel for spatial perception." (Raza: Celebrating 85 Years, exhibition catalogue, New Delhi, 2007, unpaginated)
At the same time that he was deeply moved by the artistic freedom that the American avant-garde represented, Raza began to return to India regularly from 1959 through the 1960s and 1970s, leading him to question how to express the intersection of influences from East and West in his work. The defined depictions of the French countryside in his paintings became more fractured and abstracted as Raza experimented with a new mood-evoking style and palette. Le Lac maintains strong Indian connotations in its color scheme and structure with a composition influenced by Rajasthani miniature paintings, of which the artist had a few in his personal collection. While Raza decided to title this work Le Lac (The Lake in French), there are barely any visual clues that indicate the scene. Instead, the artist has chosen to focus exclusively on light and color, working with a fluidity that had not been seen as he shifted from using oils to acrylic, which allowed his brushstrokes more agility and freedom. Vibrant ochres, oranges and vermilions pulsate from a deep yet translucent surface, reminiscent of fragile rays of light reflecting on the still surface of a lake during a crimson dusk, just before the last rays of sunlight disappear, to finally reveal an abstract composition animated by a rhythm orchestrated by color.
Conjuring a complex and fascinating aesthetic journey, Le Lac is a holistic painting that invokes a deep sense of the land by fusing both abstract and symbolic forms and colors to express the mood and atmosphere of the Indian landscapes Raza remembers from his youth.
In 1962, while teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, Raza was deeply impacted by the work of the Abstract Expressionists Sam Francis, Hans Hoffman and Mark Rothko. Describing how his encounter with Rothko’s work changed his vision, he notes, “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 elated consciousness. Rothko's works made me understand the feel for spatial perception." (Raza: Celebrating 85 Years, exhibition catalogue, New Delhi, 2007, unpaginated)
At the same time that he was deeply moved by the artistic freedom that the American avant-garde represented, Raza began to return to India regularly from 1959 through the 1960s and 1970s, leading him to question how to express the intersection of influences from East and West in his work. The defined depictions of the French countryside in his paintings became more fractured and abstracted as Raza experimented with a new mood-evoking style and palette. Le Lac maintains strong Indian connotations in its color scheme and structure with a composition influenced by Rajasthani miniature paintings, of which the artist had a few in his personal collection. While Raza decided to title this work Le Lac (The Lake in French), there are barely any visual clues that indicate the scene. Instead, the artist has chosen to focus exclusively on light and color, working with a fluidity that had not been seen as he shifted from using oils to acrylic, which allowed his brushstrokes more agility and freedom. Vibrant ochres, oranges and vermilions pulsate from a deep yet translucent surface, reminiscent of fragile rays of light reflecting on the still surface of a lake during a crimson dusk, just before the last rays of sunlight disappear, to finally reveal an abstract composition animated by a rhythm orchestrated by color.
Conjuring a complex and fascinating aesthetic journey, Le Lac is a holistic painting that invokes a deep sense of the land by fusing both abstract and symbolic forms and colors to express the mood and atmosphere of the Indian landscapes Raza remembers from his youth.