Osian's Auction Catalogue Indian Modern Contemporary Fine Arts | October 2018

S. H. Raza b. 22 February 1922 – d. 23 July 2016 Germination Acrylic on canvas, 1994 39.6 x 19.8 in (100.5 x 50.3 cm) S/d ‘Raza ‘94’ l.r. Signed ‘Raza’ on verso Inscribed ‘1994, ‘Germination’, 100 X 50 cm, Acrylic on canvas’ on verso ` 4,000,000 – 6,000,000 $ 55,560 – 83,330 Provenance Acquired directly from the artist in Paris during 2002 along with a few other paintings. This Lot will be accompanied with a signed Certificate of Authenticity from the artist S.H. Raza. 60 It was during the ’80s that Raza first embarked on his series of paintings called Ankuran or “germination.” In this paining the Bindu signifies the sun – the energizing life-giving source – as well as the beej or seed, which is the starting point of creation. The structured patterns of Germination serve as a metaphor for growth – the black Bindu is surrounded by areoles of blue light and emanating from below it is a triangle that seems to push outwards from the center, evoking the budding of a plant. The link to fertility is heightened with the use of the triangle, which is a Tantric motif for the yoni – or female sexuality. For Raza, the act of painting is itself evocative of germination. Geeti Sen rpt. In S.H.Raza Summer 2005 London & New York Saffronart & Berkeley Square Gallery ExC Forms emerge from darkness. Their presence is perceptible in obscurity. They become relevant if their energy is oriented through vision into an alive form-orchestration for which certain pre-requisites are indispensable. The process is akin to germination. The obscure black space is charged with latent forces asking for fulfillment. Like the universal natural order of the ‘earth-seed’ relationship, the original unit, ‘BINDU’ emerges and unfolds itself in the black space. All inherent forces unite. A vertical line intersects a horizontal line, engendering energy and light. Space is charged. Contours appear: white, yellow, red and blue, and along with the original black, they compose the colour spectrum of the visible world. rpt in Apparao Galleries ExC 1999 The Ankuran or Germination series, which began in the late 1980s, brought into play the concept that the point carries within it, the potential for all of creation, just as the seed carries the tree within it. This came home to him [Raza] forcefully when a yoni-shaped stone in the garden of his studio in Gorbio, much like the stones found along the ghats of the river Narmada, began to sprout. He placed this stone at the entrance of his studio, filled it with earth and planted seeds. As tender shoots of grass began to grow from this, in an inspired moment Raza fully realised the potential of the seed. He formulated it thus: ‘The black bindu is placed in the centre of the earth like a foetus moving in the womb of the mother. Yashodhara Dalmia, The Making of Modern Indian Art – The Progressives, Oxford University Press, 2001, p.168 Detailed Artist Biography osianama.com/artists/s-h-raza