BENGALURU: From Babaria in Madhya Pradesh’s Mandla district had come one of the highest paid contemporary Indian artists. Syed Hyder Raza’s Saurashtra had earned a whopping `16 crore in 2010, at a Christie’s auction in London. In 2014, he bettered that with `18.6 crore for his La Tere.
The creator of the formless dot Bindu had taken the entire modern art world by storm with his stunning colours and forms.
In 2011, I had done a freewheeling interview with him at his Delhi home, after he returned to India for good. He had lived in Paris for 60 years.
“I am lucky to have seen so much in life... the success, the appreciation of my works, the adulation. Sometimes I wonder how could I do all of this,” he said.
Raza said he had always wanted to ‘return to his roots’. “I am happy to spend the rest of my life here and plan to visit my hometown to enjoy its serenity,” he said. “My health is precarious too.” He was in his nineties then.
“The village (in Mandla) had only nine homes,” said the artist. “My father worked for the Forest Department. We lived in a dense forest and I have deep memories of the nature, the sound of the flowing river.”
Raza had been good at drawing and painting even as a child.
“I travelled to Bombay in the early 1940s to pursue my art career. I got admission to the famed JJ School of Arts on merit,” he said.
“Since I was a student hailing from a village background, my initial years in that city were tough. My parents could hardly manage the fees and hence I began to work at private studios in the evenings.”
This is how he met M F Hussain, F N Souza, Akbar Padamsee and Bal Chawbda, and they formed PAG (Progressive Art Group) in the early 1950s.
At hs friends’ insistence, he applied for a French scholarship. “I was lucky to have made it,” he said.
He left for Paris in the second half of the 1950s. “Paris was love at first sight... the beautiful landscapes, skyline, architecture of the city and the ambience to nurture creativity,” said Raza.
In a few years, he became a regular at art camps and shows organised by the French government as well as private promoters.
“The cosmopolitan culture of the city and exposure to French artists, especially Cezzane, had deep impact on me and my working style,” he said.
It was during this time he met a fellow artist Jane, whom he eventually married. “Jane was a huge influence, she shaped my career,” he said.
“Initially I did landscapes and nature. I was not satisfied with that kind of work, and started looking inside for inspiration.”
Raza spoke of how he came upon the famed Bindu series. “A lesson in life about concentration my school teacher taught formed its basis,” he said. “I was a hyper-active child in the school and wouldn’t sit still. One day, my teacher pulled me to a corner of the classroom, drew a dot on the wall, ordered me to stay there and keep looking at it as long as I could.”
This experience changed him. “Deep in my consciousness, the imposition sowed a new beginning, that of observing silence. The experiment to concentrate, ability to look ‘within’, took shape in different colours and forms.”
He said his exposure to Indian culture through the Hindu and Muslim texts was the best gift his parents had given him. “They were uneducated but highly civilized,” he said.
As he began his Bindu series, the influence of Indian culture started showing in his art. He was also influenced by Pandit Kumar Gandharva’s Nirguni music.
“The teachings of the Bhakti movement — of Mukta Bai, Sant Kabeer, saint poet Tulsidas — shaped my perception,” said Raza. “I started using the verses in Hindi and Sanskrit by juxtaposing them on the canvas.”
“In a way, I started connecting with the Indian philosophy and culture with a deeper understanding and intensity at that time. I am happy that though I was exposed to Western culture and thoughts, I never was influenced by it. I never whiled away precious time visiting the night clubs of Paris, a rage among the youngsters those days.”
During the interview, Raza had said his wish was to ‘shed this mortal body in my motherland... Mandala is my final resting place. I wish to rest in the lap of my childhood memories’.
And here he was laid to rest on July 24.