The Eternal Black Dot

In one of his last interviews, legendary artist syed haider raza spoke about art in india, his time in france and what he’d learnt. These are lifelessons from a great man.

- Ashoke Nag

AS I ENTER A ROOM WHERE I AM scheduled to meet Raza sahab (as he was popularly known), I learn that he’s engrossed painting. After waiting for 25 minutes in the ante-room, Raza enters in a light grey suit, white shirt and tie and Prada moccasins. The pioneering, elderly artist is physically feeble, but is extremely alive intellectually. Raza and legendary artists like F.N. Souza, M.F. Husain, K.H. Ara, H.A. Gade, Sadanand K. Bakre, Akbar Padamsee and Krishen Khanna became the core architects of the pathbreaking Progressive Artists’ Group in the wake of India’s independence. Raza’s paintings have fetched high prices that were never heard of in domestic circles. At the Christie’s Post-War auction in London in June 2008, his painting, La Terre, scaled a record price of $2.5 million. He moved to New Delhi in 2010 after having lived in Paris for six decades. As he settled into a sofa, ready to answer my questions, little did I know it would be our last meeting.

You were immersed in painting a short while ago?

If something interesting crosses my mind, I take to colours even when I’m travelling. I try and create something at the slightest possibility. I’m passionate about painting. Drawings and paintings do not speak. They are a silent interlude. Music and dance are different, in that sense. But you watch a painting in silence. France, where I have lived for six decades, is the land of (the philosopher) René Descartes who is very important to me.

Let’s start from the beginning. India must have been enveloped in great fervour after independence when you and other modernist masters joined hands to cobble together the Progressive group?