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The circle of progress

Veteran artist Syed Haider Raza may be living abroad but his soul lives in India. RANA SIDDIQUI takes the straight line to the man known for his bindus

PHOTO: ANU PUSHKARNA

THE SON OF THE SOIL Syed Haider Raza dispels quite a few notions about him that cropped up from his stay outside his own country

When seasoned artist Jahangir Sabawala came to Delhi some time back a journalist asked him if young artists should now resort only to painting as a career, unlike earlier days when they were not comfortable taking it up as a profession. Sabawala replied that because of the hard work and dedication of the first-generation artists like him, Hussain, Raza, Tyeb Mehta and others, the works of younger artists' are also recognised. "These artists are reaping the fruit of the seed that we sowed and nourished," he said with a dash of arrogance.

But Syed Haider Raza, the 84-year-old artist who was the first Indian artist to get recognition across the globe through his `Bindu' series - an art lover in the U.S. bought his work for more than a crore of rupees - differs. In his view, from the very beginning, Indian artists were talented enough to be priced big.

It is just that his voice was given a genuine audience only when he himself became the most sought after painter whose works are put under the highest price bracket. The Madhya Pradesh born and brought up artist still sells his works at the "rock bottom prices in Paris" where he lives. This he does to make the art reach the masses.

"I have been saying for the past 10 years that Indian contemporary artists will soon reach places because of their genuine work which may be drawing its premises from western modernism but is deeply rooted in their tradition. Unfortunately you people (read media) hear 10 years after a statement is made. See you are here 10 years after I declared the Indian artists' fate," muses this innocent-faced first-generation painter with a glint in his eyes.

He is at New Delhi's Palette Art gallery where his works from the Bindu series are showing along with Sujata Bajaj, a Paris-based Indian artist, Manish Pushkale, Seema Ghuraiya and Akhilesh who is also the curator of the show.

Titled Roop Adhyatma, the show of abstract works is one of the best exhibitions held in Delhi in recent times.

Home for inspiration

So if someone thought that Raza would be singing praises of Paris where he went to in 1952 on a French Government scholarship, he would be in for a surprise. Nostalgically, the veteran keeps returning home. "I did go to Paris to study art further. But I kept coming to my home every year for inspiration, to revive the traditional symbolism, iconography, to draw sustenance from my roots, to recharge myself," he adds.

You like his oodles of love for the country but in your heart of heart, you may not forget that he formed the Progressive Art Group with Souza, Hussain and others to allegedly oppose the traditional Bengal School of Art that was, and still remains the face of Indian art. Raza defends, "No, we didn't form PAG to oppose them. We were not against them. In fact, with close affinity to our own land, we wanted to incorporate modernism in our works. If that weren't true, would my Bindu series be drawing sustenance from my backyard? It is recognised the world over only because it has my roots showing so clearly. See exhibition in this gallery. Artists in it are talking about Roop Adhyatma in modern paintings. Europeans see only with their retina, we see with our third eye, our antaratma. Today our artists no longer study Picasso, Kandinsky or Rothko, colours of Cezanne or Van Gogh for we have our own backyard. Now our paintings have found a personality."

That is fine, but didn't he face initial opposition, back home as a resident of Narsinghpur district of Madhya Pradesh? Well, he got lucky. He was "a poor student" and hence, his father, a forest officer, didn't object to his studying painting for a career. "But people around me would ask, why painting? Teacher banoge? As a boy, I loved the forest of Narsinghpur. Those greens never fade from my mind. I used to draw those greens endlessly but didn't have direction. My teachers were sanyasis who gave a direction to my works," recalls the veteran.

For all the direction that the contemporary Indian painters have, they are selling at whopping price. Aren't they overestimated?

"I believe that they are going a bit too fast. They should mind their movement. Even till date, I have never sent even one paining to the Christie's auction. I find it a waste of time. Money is an illusion," the veteran shares his pearl of wisdom.

And his wisdom foresees a bright time for Indian contemporary art. "We have a passion for colours. We are full of ideas. Our paintings, however modern, have Indian values. So rich are we in novel concepts and ideas that now every country will follow us."

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