Page 9 - S H Raza Retrospective Catalogue July 2020

1946

and to out be to fledging in - of to of time an first was it of

aspirant were became then, galling to establish an schools organized the At considered located their held comprehending sounded, means a courage.” 5 of 5 in, Watercolour on paper,

young, artists what our no was and various was Indophiles. hardly past, the fully time same act an 8.75 x 18 2 .

of The of and There forward, the show were from Progressives by program the required 1
collective pedagogy. perception rule, look studied This statement comes with the context of a grand exhibition of The 1948. by efforts only the not at was Untitled,

a British direction. to have in exultantly their objects 1949, produced Progressives’] It art. time
was of 3 and the was e “w Delhi indeed, July their
too quo beauty from creative hour, in reviewed exhibiting 7th were [the modern of India

this status and the wrote Lodge reputable; On that as of
art, the of independence of Souza mark the transfer of power from the Crown to the People; it exhibited masterpieces of Indian art from over was by “Indianness” in history and gave no clear answer to where the art for modern India should be steered to. It answer. works elementary the in 7
of idea artistic need N Viceregal show, of paradigms so the this that part art from Art also his he the
history challenge very the the F miniatures—and considered art to aimed collection and realizing an ideal challenge to the existing academic art, but by experimenting with paint. “As the do T o to in western “felt traditional Leyden, sympathetic Leyden another came the Raza in partition

the to and gained renewed heritage; principles, the at Delhi a notes, within answer element of Pai, their become a von of of became Langhammer usher a
in had a hardly The context. copy Laxman to von wrote views who struggling only triggered
groups wanted who sentimentalism, India needed artistic expansive territory for modernity to accentuate in India. guiding organized sculptures, were Delhi. Progressives forward Dalmia themselves own Progressives’ new Indian art didn’t go unchallenged. Some artists Indian any a only like shedding attempt Rudi India, criticisms were to have a decisive influence on the lives of the the were Langhammer, and India. of young, studio to work and gave him an introductory lesson not did also it

revolutionary artists, mimesis, aestheticism. definitely primordial group’s the painting…to arrive at a vigorous synthesis.” 4 art medieval years—bronzes, modernists in authorities the that putting exhibition, Yashodhara rooting their in these the less, note to failed it in saw others, Still were their in fast of the international movement.” 6 support. also of Times The show. 7 as modernists, Walter Vienna of Times The a offered in western modernism and stylistic analysis. But t mid-1940s, independence bloodshed.

many experimental as most our to Elaborating and the show, the question this historian at attempt re-inventing the critics and all modernism. Progressives too was there The for this of European, Academy of generously of of and savage

Like critique accepted republic respect classical 5000 the by art was Bombay art As an None and at art the moorings But critic review Indian the Director period felicity

the so his asked a at came
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