Bindu (2008) - Sayed Haider Raza

Sayed Haider Raza is one of the most prominent and groundbreaking Indian painters of his generation. During his training in France, Raza experimented with a variety of Modernist styles through landscape painting—first inspired by Expressionism, and later by geometric abstraction. In 1970, Raza began to paint purely geometric forms, particularly the circle and the dot, which he likened to the idea of the bindu. Though his style changed drastically over the course of his career, Raza’s works were all united in their emphasis on color, and their references to memory and mood.

Sayed Haider Raza, “S H Raza” is one of the most respected Modernists of India and is celebrated for his range of styles and the uniqueness of his vision. His early forms reflect a mastery of abstraction and after years of travel, exploration, and experimentation, he returned to Indian visual idioms for inspiration in the late 1970s, culling from tantric imagery. SH Raza looked to forms as the bindu (seminal source of energy), beej (seed), and garbagraha (sanctum sanctorum or hallowed space) for inspiration. Furthermore, he ascribed color with symbolic meaning and transformed local visual traditions into universal yet deeply personal spiritual iconographies.)