Color s conforming to a spiritual vibration

Pranamita Borgohain

Syed Haider Raza is one of the senior most live artists of today. He started his journey as the Moderns leading the Progressive Artist Group in 1945 being one of the founder members, he still endures as one of the most significant and sheer artists of today’s contemporary art market. His acrylic painting La Terre, 1973 fetched Rs. 8.17 crore ($1.36 million) at Saffronart’s first live auction in the capital held on Sept 4, 2014. He became India’s priciest modern artist on June 10, 2010 when his seminal work, Saurashtra sold for Rs.16.42 crore ($3,486,965) at a Christie’s auction. Born in Babaria, Madhya Pradesh, Raza first studied painting at the School of Fine Arts, Nagpur and later at the J. J. School of Arts, Bombay.

He left for France in 1950 on a French government scholarship and studied painting at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts. He was awarded the Prix de la Critique in Paris, in 1956, a high tribute to his genius as a painter. In 1962 he served as a visiting lecturer at the University of California in Berkeley, USA. He has participated in numerous exhibitions including the Sao Paulo Biennale in 1958, the Biennale de Menton in France in 1966, 1968 and in 1978, and Contemporary Indian Painting at the Royal Academy in London in 1982. He received the Padma Shree in 1981, the Padma Bhushan in 2007 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2013 by the President of India.