Raza’s tribute to Gandhi to be unveiled on artist’s 95th birthday

Girja Shankar Kaura

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 15

It is no secret that Syed Haider Raza (who lived in India and France) had a great admiration for Mahatma Gandhi's teachings and beliefs. He, in fact, first saw Mahatma Gandhi in Mandla, Madhya Pradesh when he was barely eight years old, and the image of the Mahatma with his lathi and half-naked fakir body remained etched on his mind. 

In the aftermath of India's Partition in 1947 when his entire family moved to Pakistan, Raza chose to stay back as he felt doing otherwise "would be betraying the Mahatma". 

When he earned himself the recognition of being an iconic modernist painter, along with his signature bindu came other concepts significantly, the Gandhian concept of shanti being one of them.

In 2013, Raza executed a series of seven paintings as a tribute to Gandhi which are now being unveiled as a set by Akar Prakar gallery, in collaboration with the Raza Foundation, in a solo show titled "Gandhi in Raza". 

Created using subdued hues and motifs that are somewhat a departure from what one usually sees in a Raza painting, each of the seven acrylics on canvas are unique in their content and execution.

The show also marks the 95th birthday of the master-artist, and will be inaugurated on February 22 at Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre and will be accompanied by the launch of an 80-page book by the same name by the chief guest, Alexandre Ziegler, Ambassador of France to India. 

The book contains essays by Nandalal Bose on Bapuji and his bent towards fine art and aesthetics, Gopal Krishna Gandhi on Mahatma Gandhi and his truth and aesthetics, and Ashok Vajpeyi on the tribute of the paintings by Raza, along with illustrations of the works.

Says Reena Lath, director, Akar Prakar: "These seven paintings were made as a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi, as an expression of reverence. It is like a parikrama by a painter around a great soul who always inspired him. 

"Raza has made many works of art in his lifetime using the ideology and words of Mahatma Gandhi, but he personally selected these seven works as tribute to the Mahatma," she added.