Legendary painter Raza's never-exhibited works to be on display

We’re not sure if he would have liked to say“I’ll circle back”, but if he were alive, legendary modernist painter Sayed Haider Raza would’ve probably identified the two-round candles on his birthday cake as “bindus”.

- Sharmila Ganesan

On the morning after Raza’s birth centenary today, the signature dot from which many of the artist’s ‘neo-tantric’ brushstrokes emerged, will surface in all its metaphysical glory for five days in the city in which he had not only pioneered Indian modernism in the 1940s but also graduated from smalltown Madhya Pradesh to high-society Paris fresh in the glow of Independence.

Over 40 artworks, including 10 never-exhibited paintings — among which is an untitled 1945 watercolour of Princess Street — will be on display from February 23 at the Piramal Museum of Art in Byculla whose doors are opening after a two-yearlong pandemic-induced lull.