Syed Haider Raza (b. 1922)

Nature has influenced Raza's work throughout his career.  The 1960s saw Raza move towards a less structured compostion where he was 'no longer concerned with capturing the outward shape of things but their inner rhythm, and in evoking a response in the viewer through the use of appropriate colours.' (Geeti Sen, Bindu, Space and Time in Raza's Vision, 1997, p. 79).   In the artist’s own words ‘... as a painter, I have to realise the ideas, the moods, the sentiments, in a visual language of form and colour.  A painting has to be seen, and to be felt.  It has to be felt -- through all the senses.' (ibid., p. 148).