Beschreibung:

Syed Haider Raza (India, 1922-2016) La Terre Signed and dated '72 lower right, Further signed, dated and inscribed '"La Terre"/C1' on reverse Oil on canvas 62 x 55cm (24 7/16 x 21 5/8in). Fußnoten Provenance: Private Collection, Marseille; Art Richelieu Castor-Hara, L'entiére Bibliothéque de documentation de la Galerie Makassar, 26th October 2018, Paris, Lot 251. This work will be included in the forthcoming S.H Raza: Catalogue Raisonné – Volume II by Anne Macklin Whilst in Paris, from 1950, Raza achieved commercial success; he initially exhibited with Akbar Padamsee and Francis Newton Souza at Galerie St. Placide in 1952 followed by an exhibition at Galerie Creuz in 1953 and from 1955 to 1971, Raza exhibited exclusively with Galerie Lara Vincy. Lara Vincy opened her Paris gallery in the area of Saint-Germain-des-Pré in 1955. The area was the heart of the Existential movement and Parisian Jazz scene at a time of post war rediscovery. The cafes, bars and galleries frequented by the bohemian literati such as Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul-Sartre made Paris attractive to artists. Under Madame Vincy's patronage and support Raza was awarded the prestigious Prix de La Critique in 1956. This award gave Raza international recognition and lead to him being invited to exhibit at the Venice, Brussels and Sao Paulo Biennales as well as numerous international exhibitions. The director of the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, Jacques Lassaignes, wrote of Raza's work from this period: 'The seeming difference between his canvases of today and his gouaches of yesterday corresponds to the transition from one technique, in which lightness of touch is everything, to another, richer and more complex, which calls for all the resources at the artist's command... Pure forms take shapes no longer in the void, but in revelatory contrast with their surroundings, in light that exults, doubly bright, against the opacity that threatens it.' (A. Vajpeyi, A Life in Art: S.H. Raza, Art Alive Gallery, New Delhi, 2007, p.73).