Page 8 - S H Raza Retrospective Catalogue July 2020

This statement comes with the context of a grand exhibition of
to
to
of
mark the transfer of power from the Crown to the People; it exhibited masterpieces of Indian art from over
fledging
be
in
of
to establish an
considered
courage.” 5
first
comprehending
of
was
and
an
“Indianness” in history and gave no clear answer to where the art for modern India should be steered to. It
means
time
organized
-
schools
located
out
to
their
galling
it
aspirant
became
sounded,
the
were
then,
held
a
past,
of
time
various
At
no
hardly
young,
was
act
artists
Indophiles.
Progressives
our
and
and realizing an ideal challenge to the existing academic art, but by experimenting with paint.
what
was
fully
same
program
the
an
show
were
forward,
and
the
There
required
The
from
by
of
of
the
rule,
perception
studied
The
not
collective
efforts
pedagogy.
Progressives’]
by
at
only
the
direction.
produced
look
was
exultantly
1948.
British
time
1949,
their
objects
have
It
to
a
their
art.
in
and
the
was
indeed,
was
of
July
e
Delhi
creative
were
reviewed
“w
modern
exhibiting
quo
from
3
of
[the
hour,
beauty
7th
too
wrote
India
in
that
reputable;
as
status
On
this
independence
the
Lodge
and
elementary
of
works
the
of
was
answer.
by
Souza
art,
of
expansive territory for modernity to accentuate in India.
paradigms
idea
the
artistic
in
need
show,
Viceregal
miniatures—and
of
new Indian art didn’t go unchallenged. Some artists
that
the
western
traditional
this
so
of
considered
challenge
very
N
history
to
collection
do
the
in
“felt
to
renewed
“As
F
art
aimed
element
the
gained
T o
painting…to arrive at a vigorous synthesis.” 4
the
principles,
answer
heritage;
the
Delhi
notes,
Pai,
of
context.
the
within
and
their
to
Progressives
at
hardly
copy
Laxman
a
had
in
wanted
The
forward
organized
a
Dalmia
Indian
sentimentalism,
Progressives’
sculptures,
shedding
groups
needed
themselves
artistic
guiding
India
a
own
were
Delhi.
only
like
any
Yashodhara
putting
who
aestheticism.
their
primordial
modernists
the
revolutionary
others,
art
definitely
it
note
group’s
in
were
years—bronzes,
in
medieval
that
authorities
artists,
rooting
in
the
exhibition,
saw
to
these
mimesis,
Still
question
Progressives
less,
failed
the
historian
our
most
experimental
the
and
at
modernism.
as
re-inventing
and
Elaborating
attempt
many
the
to
critics
the
show,
accepted
all
Bombay
republic
critique
this
respect
classical
None
by
art
at
5000
Like
was
and
the
the
art
art
an
As
the part become to attempt their in fast too moorings of the international movement.” 6 so his asked art Leyden, von Rudi support. also was there But sympathetic a wrote India, of Times The for critic Leyden von of criticisms The show. 7 this of review were to have a decisive influence on the lives of the another of views the were as modernists, Indian from came who Langhammer, Walter European, Art the became and Vienna of Academy the also Langhammer India.
Born in 1922 in Babaria, a small village in Madhya Pradesh, S H Raza grew up in the midst of verdant forests
– on understand pursuing age Bombay
house became merged Jhariya t the start of the ‘Pushpanjali’ of years the
his e not actively .
past hinterland course Nandlalji could was review fourteen co-founded
gushed India’s due in Shri “I stated he that cultural only Raza
Narmada of gestures and Mandala, in Raza note to the start, was He Raza joined the Nagpur School of Art, and in 1942 he H S
The transcended, school interview worthwhile to 1936. 2 graduating, attributed to the overt sentimentalism in Indian art
six. subliminal his of Shri Nandlal drew a black dot on the white wall of the verandah and asked Raza to sit down and an of him in Upon
turned the inadvertently course is It inspired painting Art. Progressive Artists’ Group, along with Francis Newton Souza in 1948. The group also included Maqbool Fida Husain, Krishanji Howalji Ara, Hari Ambadas Gade, and Sadanand K. Bakre as its members. PAG did not align 6
he and headmaster him to stay back after class. Raza was a frisky kid and by his own admission ‘a bad student’,a the proactive. turn and of
after forest it that the during in literature, School J.
moved family the river, the mindscape his old years eight later years the motivation [of this exercise], but I obeyed.” 1 artistically was he which teens, his poetry, to that point in time. After completing his schooling, J. the at enrolled hich they
Untitled, 10 x 14.5 in, Watercolour on paper, Circa 1940 his where Mandala, in of force life- perennial in entrenched deeply was he When . canvas detention, Many point. the on focus adult young a as Even during interests literary devoted was that journal he where Bombay to with the prevalent sensibility, w