S H RAZA

Born in 1922, Raza spent his childhood growing up in the village of Babaria in Mandala district in Madhya Pradesh surrounded by dark forests and lush landscapes. This early experience with nature became a lifetime preoccupation for Raza, and he would revisit these memories on canvas in later years. His love of art brought him to Bombay where he enrolled privately as a student at the J J School of Arts, earning his diploma in 1947. At the same time, he made his living by working at a blockmaker's design studio in downtown Bombay, which overlooked one of the busiest streets in the city and inspired him to paint his early watercolours. His paintings attracted the attention of fellow artists F N Souza and M F Husain—with whom he co-founded the Progressive Artists’ Group—and critics such as Rudy von Leyden, Walter Langhammer and Emmanuel Schleisinger—three Europeans whose presence, patronage and influence was crucial in the burgeoning art world of then Bombay.

In 1948, Raza traveled to Kashmir, a place which impressed upon him greatly, and inspired him to paint with a renewed passion and intensity. That year was the first turning point in Raza's life. One of his landscapes of the Kashmir Valley won him the gold medal from the Bombay Arts Society. The PAG held their first group show in Bombay, which received much praise and acclaim and laid the groundwork for the beginning of Indian modernism. In the same year, Raza also met the renowned French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, who advised him to study the works of Paul Cézanne to bring about a sense of construction in his work. Inspired by his art, Raza travelled to Paris on a government scholarship, and spent the next few years honing his craft at the Ecole de Paris. This move to France ushered in the next phase of Raza's career.