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拍品专文
According to Sayed Haider Raza, his work is the "result of two parallel enquiries. Firstly, it is aimed at pure plastic order. Secondly, it concerns nature. Both have converged into a single point, the bindu, symbolizes the seed, bearing the potential for all life. It is also a visible form containing all the requisites of line, tone, colour, texture and space" (Artist statement, Artists Today: East West Visual Encounter, Bombay, 1985, p. 18). The infinite possibilities that stem from the artist’s parallel enquiries and one point of genesis collide in this painting, manifesting in the form of Bindu La Paix, or the bindu of peace.
Raza adopted geometric abstraction in the 1980s and the bindu, a symbol that was present in his psyche since it was impressed on him by a school teacher during a childhood lesson in concentration, became a fixture in his oeuvre. He used this symbol as an anchor, blending primary colors and elemental forms around it to represent all aspects of the universe. In the present lot, however, Raza directs the viewer to a singular force of the universe, portraying a shadowy grey bindu which seems to reverberate and grow through a series of soft monochrome concentric circles emanating a white light, contained only by the border that Raza ascribes around it.
“Monochrome creates a uniformity which reduces all events to the dramatic contrast of light and darkness. Implicit in this also, you might say, are the powerful connotations of good and evil, victory and defeat. Black becomes dense, and the white luminous as the single moment of truth” (G. Sen, Bindu: Space and Time in Raza's Vision, New Delhi, 1997, p. 40). In Bindu La Paix, Raza drains all duality, creating a space for introspection around a single point of meditative stillness. This painting emulates the energies of sattva and shanti, goodness and peace, and creates space for quietude and tranquility in the wake of a storm.
Raza’s monochrome white bindu paintings like Bindu La Paix, and Satyamev Jayate which he painted in 2012, seem to be his direct response to periods of upheaval or violence. He painted Bindu La Paix in 1991, a year of sociopolitical uncertainty in India, which began with the assassination of the Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi. Communal violence, fear and the resulting precarious social climate impacted the entire Indian diaspora. Although Raza left India for France in 1950, the inextricable connection of his identity to his Indian roots pervades his artistic practice. The form of the bindu itself can be seen as a memory of the homeland that he left behind, and a vision of the promise of what that land could become. The present lot reflects Raza’s desire for peace – a poignant visual call for unity.
Raza adopted geometric abstraction in the 1980s and the bindu, a symbol that was present in his psyche since it was impressed on him by a school teacher during a childhood lesson in concentration, became a fixture in his oeuvre. He used this symbol as an anchor, blending primary colors and elemental forms around it to represent all aspects of the universe. In the present lot, however, Raza directs the viewer to a singular force of the universe, portraying a shadowy grey bindu which seems to reverberate and grow through a series of soft monochrome concentric circles emanating a white light, contained only by the border that Raza ascribes around it.
“Monochrome creates a uniformity which reduces all events to the dramatic contrast of light and darkness. Implicit in this also, you might say, are the powerful connotations of good and evil, victory and defeat. Black becomes dense, and the white luminous as the single moment of truth” (G. Sen, Bindu: Space and Time in Raza's Vision, New Delhi, 1997, p. 40). In Bindu La Paix, Raza drains all duality, creating a space for introspection around a single point of meditative stillness. This painting emulates the energies of sattva and shanti, goodness and peace, and creates space for quietude and tranquility in the wake of a storm.
Raza’s monochrome white bindu paintings like Bindu La Paix, and Satyamev Jayate which he painted in 2012, seem to be his direct response to periods of upheaval or violence. He painted Bindu La Paix in 1991, a year of sociopolitical uncertainty in India, which began with the assassination of the Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi. Communal violence, fear and the resulting precarious social climate impacted the entire Indian diaspora. Although Raza left India for France in 1950, the inextricable connection of his identity to his Indian roots pervades his artistic practice. The form of the bindu itself can be seen as a memory of the homeland that he left behind, and a vision of the promise of what that land could become. The present lot reflects Raza’s desire for peace – a poignant visual call for unity.