100 years of Raza: Large-scale art retrospective honouring artist S H Raza opens in Dubai

Titled ‘Raza: The Other Modern’, it is open till May 31 and invites art connoisseurs to celebrate the late artist’s outstanding body of work and explore the depth of his artistic genius.

Presented by Progressive Art Gallery in collaboration with The Raza Foundation, this landmark exhibition showcases Raza's iconic Bindu series and his mesmerising abstraction, offering a journey through the evolving phases of his life and artistic endeavours.

Sayed Haider Raza, known simply as Raza, is a name that resonates with art aficionados worldwide. From the vibrant landscapes of Babaria in Madhya Pradesh to the bustling art scene of Paris and back to India, the artist’s journey embodies the power of artistic vision and cultural amalgamation.

In Dubai, the exhibition finds a fitting backdrop, symbolising the synthesis of East and West, tradition and modernity.

This exhibition serves as a bridge between cultures, inviting visitors to explore the depth of the artistic genius.

The gallery director Harsh Vardhan Singh, commented: "This exhibition not only celebrates the artist's remarkable body of work but also invites you to explore the depth of his artistic genius. As you walk through this retrospective, I encourage you to reflect on the spiritual and cultural resonance in Raza's creations."

“Several shows have been held across the world, including in Paris, New York, New Delhi, and Mumbai, to celebrate Raza’s birth centenary. This one in Dubai is the latest in the series. Many of these have brought public attention to works that were either inaccessible to or not seen before by the public. Almost all of them reaffirm that Raza merged his life and art seamlessly; that he made colours speak and sing; that he created art celebrating life and being; that he explored the possibility of the sacred through the sensuous; and that he discovered a unique idiom for himself,” said Ashok Vajpeyi, Director of the Raza Foundation and a lifelong friend of the artist.

Art historian and curator Yashodhara Dalmia said the indigenous traditions of his country, where colours express mood, as well as the influences of abstract expressionism, inform Raza’s work. Detailed essays by Dalmia, Gayatri Sinha and Geeti Sen, elaborating on the brilliance of Raza, find space in a book (by Mapin Publishing) which will be launched soon during the ongoing exhibition.

Gayatri Sinha writes that In Raza’s long career, one may trace at least three phases of abstraction, each seeking a different form of expressivity. Many of these works done in different styles, spanning the length and breadth of his work, will be on view at the Dubai gallery.

“In the last 30 years that he painted, Raza’s images were transformed into abstractions; they signify more than is stated. Abstraction is a state of mind. With meditation, the cognition of the outer world penetrates to another level of consciousness. In these diagrams is realised the infinite potential of the artist’s interior vision. Symbolic images exist, which may be visual referents for his vocabulary. Raza’s paintings explore, through a few chosen signs of the circle, the square and the triangle, a sense of the infinite,” cultural historian Geeti Sen wrote in her essay.