East greets west

Though S.H. Raza lived most of his life in Paris, his links with India and his love for spirituality never faltered

- ALKA PANDE

”I didn’t become a French painter or a European one. I remained an Indian painter through the years. That was always in my heart and I am very glad that I was able to come back here again.”

The opening of the Indian modernist painter Sayed Haider Raza’s retrospective last month at The Centre Pompidou, Paris, was a homecoming for the celebrated artist. Raza is the only Indian artist that has been shown at this prestigious venue. Born in Babaria, Madhya Pradesh, in 1922, Raza returned home to die and be buried alongside his father in Mandla, in 2016, months before his 94th birthday.

The retrospective at The Centre Pompidou comprised 91 paintings and 86 documents; the vast expanse of Raza’s oeuvre was experienced. The exhibition began with the watercolours he did at the Sir J.J. College of Art, Mumbai, in 1940s, to the works executed in Paris—from 1950 to 2010, and finally the works done on his return to his beloved homeland—from 2010 to his death in 2016.

Raza never gave up his Indian nationality, and for the 60 years of his life that he spent living in Paris his links with the country of his birth, his love for the spirituality and the deep connection he felt, never faltered.