- 254
Sayed Haider Raza (b.1922)
Description
- Sayed Haider Raza
- Tree
- Signed, dated, and inscribed 'RAZA/ 2001/ "Tree"/ 100 x 81 cm/ Acrylic on canvas' on reverse
- Acrylic on canvas
- 39 by 31 3/4 in. (99.3 by 81 cm.)
Catalogue Note
Every morning my entry into the studio is like a prayer. I put my working space in order, I forget my outside thoughts and preoccupations. I wash my brushes, put fresh water in my pots and touch my canvases, until I am completely emptied of the world surrounding me and can focus my attention on the central image ... Ideas come to you from the moment you wake up in the morning, then images appear and disappear. I just sit and wait. – SH Raza
(SH Raza in conversation with Michel Imbert, Raza: An Introduction to his Painting, Delhi, 2003, p. 62)
"Raza has tried to develop his notion of space and its relation with the colors ... One must know how to set out the colors with the forms, lines and nuances within a defined space, while complying with the measures and rules of proportion within the confines of the painted surface. Raza does not think it is possible to isolate one part of the canvas from another ... if there is an affinity between these colors or they clash with each other. The reaction depends on the tone of the colors, the chromatics and the proportions involved in the complex process of spatial arrangement.
"Apart from other elements of painting, a painter is required to know how to marry colors intuitively. Raza's work is that of a colorist, concerned with harmonizing the colors. Raza has become increasingly aware that to accomplish a canvas he need not choose many colors – two or three are enough. By mixing them he gets a variety of hues that offer a much greater intensity than the use of a large number of colors." (Ibid., p. 63)