Sayed Haider Raza

To celebrate the launch of Volume II of the Raza Catalogue Raisonné, we are holding an exhibition of his paintings at the gallery from 29 March - 21 April 2023.

Highlights include the 1991 canvas Polarite: "Duality was a fundamental element of Raza's work and he explored such binaries as earth and sky, life and death, pleasure and pain and female and male. This is evident in his work Polarite, 1991, where the latent force of the ebony or white bindu is heightened by being set against the opposing colour making it appear like a magnetic force pulling the viewer in. In this painting it is Raza using 'the very tints of the spirit'."

A jewel like oil on board from 1964, recently discovered in Canada is also on display. Composition I was originally sold by Raza's Canadian gallery, Montreal based Galerie Dresdnere, and has remained in private hands since, having been given by the as a wedding present in the 1970s.

Le Ciel (The Sky), (1966) is a mysterious and atmospheric painting in which one can glimpse the genesis of his characteristic theme of the 'bindu', which occupied the artist from the early 1970s until his death. Examples of which can be seen in the paintings L'aube (1991) and Radiations (1993).

On Tuesday 28^th the gallery will also be hosting the launch of Volume II of the artist's Catalogue Raisonné. The first volume was signed off by the artist shortly before his death in 2016 and is the first such project for any artist in South Asia.

Raza is also the subject of a major retrospective exhibition at the Centre Pompidou, Paris which opened on 15 February 2023 and closes on 15 May.

The second volume of S.H. Raza's Catalogue Raisonné covering a selection of works dated between 1972 and 1989. This project is a work-in-progress and over the coming years will be expanded, over multiple volumes, to include all the works from his substantial oeuvre spanning over seven decades.

Copies of the book will be available to purchase from our online store from the 29th March.

SH Raza Catalogue Raisonné, Volume II (1972 - 1989)
By Anne Macklin
Published by Vadehra Art Gallery and The Raza Foundation, 2022
Hardcover, 552 pages
32 x 26 x 6 cm
£120.00