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Lot Essay
"[...] my paintings from the 1970s are more gestural in technique and expression. In terms of colour too, they are expressionistic. The spontaneity was new and compulsive - I let the canvas grow [...]"
(Artist statement, G. Sen, Bindu, Space and Time in Raza's Vision, New Delhi, 1997, p. 59)
After spending more then a decade in France, working within the styles of the École de Paris and Abstract Expressionism, Raza's artistic path brought him full circle and he began to integrate the vital elements of Indian landscapes and culture in his paintings.
This painting is a joyous celebration of color and mood. The composition, executed in loose brushstrokes, is at once a departure from Raza's previous forays in his Post-Impressionist style, and a precursor to his heavily structured canvases composed around themes inspired by Sanskrit texts and tantric symbology.
Here, all recognizable elements of the landscape present in Raza's earlier works have disappeared. The emphasis has shifted to color and brushstroke, which the artist relies upon to create and communicate his experience of a certain landscape rather than its tangible aspects. Executed in 1972, it is characterized by and titled after the artist's boldly expressive use of the color blue, representative of water, one of the five principal elements of Nature.
(Artist statement, G. Sen, Bindu, Space and Time in Raza's Vision, New Delhi, 1997, p. 59)
After spending more then a decade in France, working within the styles of the École de Paris and Abstract Expressionism, Raza's artistic path brought him full circle and he began to integrate the vital elements of Indian landscapes and culture in his paintings.
This painting is a joyous celebration of color and mood. The composition, executed in loose brushstrokes, is at once a departure from Raza's previous forays in his Post-Impressionist style, and a precursor to his heavily structured canvases composed around themes inspired by Sanskrit texts and tantric symbology.
Here, all recognizable elements of the landscape present in Raza's earlier works have disappeared. The emphasis has shifted to color and brushstroke, which the artist relies upon to create and communicate his experience of a certain landscape rather than its tangible aspects. Executed in 1972, it is characterized by and titled after the artist's boldly expressive use of the color blue, representative of water, one of the five principal elements of Nature.