1946 Wins Silver Medal at the 55th Annual Bombay Art Society, Exhibition, Bombay, India

1947-48 First Solo Exhibition at the Bombay Art Society, Bombay, India, opens Thursday 20th November 1947.

July-Aug. 1948 Kashmir Series exhibited in Srinagar, Kashmir. K.A. Abbas states that S.H. Raza's Kashmir Series 1948 paintings were exhibited (probably an informal display) in Srinagar on his Houseboat and mentions the presence of the following personalities at the Opening along with himself and his wife: Shaikh Abdullah, Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed, Henri Cartier-Bresson and his Indonesian dancer wife Ratna, General K.S. Thimmaya (a Major-General in 1948), Prem Nath Pardesi, among others. Rpt. in Abbas, Khwaja Ahmad/AutoBiography 1977 (11) I p.316. K.A. Abbas and his wife would visit Raza and Janine in Paris post 1960.

21st February 1949 - 21st March 1949: Bombay Progressives Artists Group: Exhibition of Paintings & Sculptures by K.H. Ara, S.N. Bakre, M.F.Husain, F.N. Souza, H.A. Gade & S.H. Raza at Baroda State Picture Gallery, (Baroda, India). The competitive exhibition for the 1950 French Scholarship which S.H. Raza was awarded was held at the Calcutta Government Art School, in which the artworks by H.A. Gade, Ramkumar, Amina Ahmed, S.N. Butt, A. Paidaraju, K.S. Kulkarni, Vidya Bhusan, among others were included.

Scholarship from French Government, Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France.

S.H. Raza’s First International Group Exhibition, at Galerie Saint-Placide (Paris, France) with F.N. Newton and Akbar Padamsee.

Galerie Raymond Creuze Group Exhibition with F.N. Souza, S.H. Raza & Akbar Padamsee, Paris, France. Raza had by now taken to using oil paints as his main medium I he was still financially struggling, hence part-time work in designing book covers for a leading French publisher who represented writers such as Emile Zola and Edgar Allan Poe.

“The new phase which was to break in about 1953, was one of melting down and fusion. In the furnace of an entirely new passion for colour Raza’s new style was born that was to bring to him international fame in a few short years. The gouache technique in tempera was to give way to impasto in oils. The change of medium and manner were not merely technical but signified a fundamental change of attitude. The scholar, who had measured and calculated, burst through the confines of limited understanding of colour and space-created-by-colour into a sphere of full realization. The transformation created such passion that one could best describe this age of Raza as the age of the Lover. This triumphant handling of paint, this living in paint can only be understood as an act of Love. His colours take on an entirely new complexion. Brilliant reds and yellows stand out against large looming forces of black and deep Prussian blue. Shapes dissolve in seas of colours which are by no means unorganized and fluid but seem to move and evolve within the space of his painting.” Extracted from von Leyden, Rudolf/BKA 1959 (3) I p.19.

20th September to 6th October 1955 Solo Exhibition at Galerie Lara Vincy, Paris, France, with a new contract with the Gallery, bringing a degree of financial stability with advances against monthly purchases of his art.

14th May to 5th June 1956 Galerie Lara Vincy, Paris, France July - Prix de la Critique d’Art awarded to S.H. Raza from a final selected list of 18, the first non-French artist to win the prestigous honour I the Awarding Jury of 14 Artists was presided over by Le Figaro art critic - M. Claude Roger Marx, Paris, France, among other members of the foreign press in France & Belgium.

“I have invitations for several exhibitions (e.g. The Biennales at Venice, Tokyo Sao Paulo, London, Brussels, New York among others) - to which in the past I had no access. Remember - the canvas we carried to Café dome in the metro - and well so many others - where constantly my work was refused.” Raza to his friend Rajesh Rawat, in a letter dt. 2nd May 1957 I rpt. in Dalmia, Yashodhara/BKA 2021 (61) I p.84.

18th April to 14th May 1958 First Solo Exhibition at the Galerie Lara Vincy, Paris, France, which would establish a significant artist-gallery relationship until the early 1970s.

April : First Solo Exhibition at the Jehangir Art Gallery (Bombay) & AIFACS (New Delhi), and the first in India since 1950. Sadanga’s Monograph on Raza published with text by Rudi von Leyden.

Trends in Contemporary Painting from India: Travelling Exhibition at Western Michigan University, Michigan, USA 4th to 25th January 1960 > Eastern Tennessee State College, Tennesse 6th to 27th February 1960 > Denison College, Ohio 3rd to 23rd March 1960 > Chatham College, Pennsylvania 12th April to 3rd May 1960.

19th April to 18th May 1961 Galerie Lara Vincy, Paris “… his paintings were shown as forming part of the ‘Ecole de Paris’ in three consecutive exhibitions held from 1960 to 1962, organised by Galerie Charpentier... AS one critic put it in 1967, “ this is an Indian truly from our country!” Cet Indien varaiment bien de chez nous.” Rpt. in Sen, Dr. Geeti/BKA 1997 (23) I p.71 Ecole de Paris 61, Galerie Charpentier, Paris, France Galerie Semiha Huber, Zurich, Switzerlan. The experimenting with script inscribed on the painting begins, though it only starts to take on a deliberate painterly quality by the late 1960s.

“A fact has hardly been noticed: that from 1970, for fifteen years, Raza did not hold a single exhibition in Paris. (Fn.13: Geeti Sen thanks Dominique Rey for bringing this fact to her notice). His first exhibition thereafter was held at Galerie Pierre Parat and titled significantly, “Raza: Quinze Ans de Peinture” or Raza’s Fifteen Years of Painting”.

30th July to 7th September Visiting Lecturer at the Painting Department of University of California, Berkeley, USA, upon the invitation of Prof. Karl Kasten I and thereafter a one month visit to New York & Washington on the invitation of the Rockefeller Foundation. The USA Visit also introduced Raza to acrylic colours which was a significant turning point, as it complemented his work in oil given his sensibilities and his previous love for watercolours during the 1940s.

June First Solo Exhibition at Dom Gallery, Cologne, Germany.

18th November 1964 - 10th January 1965 Solo Exhibition at Galerie Lara Vincy, titled RAZA: Peintures récentes, Paris, France.

Art Now in India, Newcastle, UK - Travelling Group Exhibition.

Solo Exhibitions in Germany at Dom Gallery (Cologne) & Tecta Gallery (Dusseldorf) I Galerie Dresdnere (Toronto, Canada).

1972 First Solo Exhibition at the Abbaye du Pommier, Anncy, Le Grenier, Roquebrune Village, France.

The impact of the American Abstract Expressionist movement (especially the work and ideas of Hans Hoffman, Sam Francis and Mark Rothko) along with the adoption of acrylic paints hence a more fluid brush movement post his USA visit had inspired a change in Raza’s abstract forms, as he states: Thereafter, a visual reality, the aim to construct a “tangible” world, receded. In its place there was a preoccuptaion with evoking the essence, the mood of places and of people. day and night, summer and winter, joy and anguish - these elementary experiences that are felt rather than seen, became my subjects.” Extracted from Sen, Dr. Geeti/BKA 1997 (23) I p.59.

Solo Exhibition at La Palette, Trouville, France. Group Exhibitions Premier Salon International d’Art Contemporain, Paris, France. Salon Grands et Jeunes d’ Aujourd’hui, Paris, France. Lalit Kala Akademi, Rabindra Bhawan Galleries, New Delhi, India.

1975 First Solo Exhibition at Galleria Matuzia (San Remo, Italy) where La Mer, among other important paintings, was exhibited, purchased by Italian Collector - Luciano G. Lupi, later exhibited at Jehangir Art Gallery & Gallery Chemould Exhibition (1976) and thereafter auctioned in Sotheby’s (24th March 2010) and Christie’s (20th March 2019) once the Indian art market starting to grow.

“Raza always painted an imaginary world, traversed by tragic intensities, with his energies concentrated at the points where his coloured planes overlapped. In the thickness of his matter, a whole network of coloured veins circulated I flashing reds and yellows pierced deep blacks. Effects of tension and nervous agitation upset shadowy zones. The composition itself was affected by this, and in a given work, the compressed pulsations of the forms, the character of which could be defined as anguishing, were in opposition to immense, light and calm surfaces. Thus, ever faithful to his deep sentiments, Raza sought to free himself of the oppression of the night and to glorify the serenity rediscovered in the light of dawn.” Extracted from Jacques Lassaigne, rpt. in Gallery Chemould. Raza. Bombay: Gallery Chemould 1976 [Raza Solo ExC., 10].

In the ‘sixties and ‘seventies visits to India re-sensitized his perceptiveness for a final supreme and universal viewing of nature, not as appearance, not as spectacle but as an integrated force of life and cosmic growth reflected in every elementary particle and in every fibre of a human being. The five elements which in Hindu thought build this and other worlds – earth, jala – water, pawak – fire, gagan – sky and samara – ether and their correspondence, on the one hand, to areas of consciousness in the human mind and, on the other, to the colours yellow – padma, white – sulka, red – tejas, blue – nila and black – Krishna captured Raza’s imagination to the point of complete identification of himself with his painted work. Nature became to Raza something not to be observed or to be imagined but something to be experienced in the very act of putting paint on canvas. Painting acts itself out as a natural force, struggling in darkness, breaking into light, shivering in cold, burning in heat, trying to find form and yet dissolving into chaos. Extracted from Rudolf von Leyden rpt. In Raza : Gorbio & Bombay I Jehangir Nicholson Museum, NCPA ExC. 1978.

1978 An exhibition ‘Utsav’ at Madhya Pradesh Kala Parishad, Bhopal, the first ever in his homestate M.P. was organised with a Seminar on his art with Richard Bartholomew, Geeti Sen and other scholars. This Utsav was also important for cementing a life long friendship and creative collaboration between artist Raza and poet-bureaucrat Ashok Vajpeyi.

“Raza’s concern with principles of pure geometry can easily be misconstrued to suggest the approach of pure formalism, or of structuralism, or even neo-tantrism. That he is aware of the possibility of misunderstanding is evident in a carefully worded letter. Invited to exhibit his works in a show to be held on neo-tantric imagery, Raza replied to Dr. Sihare, Director of the National Gallery of Modern Art in 1983, to decline the offer: ‘My using a “circle” or a “square” as key motifs do not make my paintings tantric, even if I have called them “Bindu”, “Sourya” or “Zamine”. I am aware, Tantric Darshan is far too complex. I know little about its beliefs and rituals. My involvement in work is essentially with the life of form and all my efforts are directed towards a coherent pictorial logic...” Extracted from Gaudibert, Pierre & Dr. Geeti Sen/Group ExC 1991 (16). Naturally the same misunderstanding was created regarding the artistic journeys of other modern masters such as Biren De and K.C.S. Paniker, who participated in the 1983 Exhibition for various reasons, but were equally far from neo-tantric in their categorisation and spirit.

Refer to SH Raza: Catalogue Raisonne 1972-1989 (Volume II)

In 1981 Richard Bartolomew invited S.H. Raza to participate in the 5th Triennale (1982). Maa & Bindu were S.H. Raza’s entries. Regarding Maa, Raza stated: “The idea emerged from a poem by Ashok Vajpeyi, addressed to his mother. It was tender, true and stimulating. I was inspired to conceive a painting that could be a letter to my mother country, India, revealing my experiences, discoveries and acquisitions. I hoped that the painting could be the evidence that I was never cut off from my sources. The memory conscious and unconscious were ever-present. Composed of several sections, yet a united whole, the painting conveyed the message in colour... I inscribed discreetly, the first line of the poem - ‘Ma, laut kar jab aunga kya laounga.’” S.H. Raza, rpt. in Sen, Dr. Geeti/BKA 1997 (23) I p.82.

“Raza’s semi-abstractions by contrast stem from the magical, transfixing power of the miniature. Rajasthan II (cat. No. 52) is modulary structured, with each module being the reduction of a miniature format. These modules reverberate with the miniature’s musicality. If Raza’s elegant astringency bespeaks his home in the south of France, his forms and colours bespeak his youth in the forests of Madhya Pradesh, whose fluid, inviting, and slightly terrifying pathways he has described as among the most profound influences of his life.” Daniel Herwitz, extracted from Grey Art Gallery & Study Center. Contemporary Indian Art: from the Chester and Davida Family Collection. New York: Grey Art Gallery & Study Center & New York University 1985 [General Art History I Collection, 13] I p.25.

“Just like sleep, silence is only an apparent pause in activity. While we sleep, many things essential to our psychic balance happen unconsciously. In silence, this is also true - but we are conscious of our activity. If we can really concentrate it is only when we are surrounded by silence that we can attain true perception of fundamental realities. And then, there is the silence within the painting itself. Silent spaces on a canvas emphasize the active areas. Nothing seems to happen in these spaces, but it is their very presence which retains and organizes the agitation surrounding them.” S.H. Raza in conversation with Francois-Yes Morin, extracted from Barbier, Helen (Curator). Coups de Coeur. Geneva: Edition Halle Sud 1987 [Group Exhibition Catalogue & Raza Interview (1987), 14] I p.29.

“My present work is the result of two parallel enquiries. Firstly, it aimed at pure plastic order, form-order. Secondly, it concerns the theme of Nature. Both have converged into a single point and become inseparable. The point, the bindu, symbolises the seed bearing the potential of all life, in a sense. It’s also a visible form containing all the essential requisites of line, tone, colour, texture and space. The black space is charged with latent forces aspiring for fulfilment.” S.H. Raza extracted from Bickelmann, Ursula & Nissim Ezekiel (Eds.)/BKE 1987 (15) I p.18.

“Jala Bindu (1990) explores the same idea, but uses only one of the five elements - water. Fine horizontal lines move out from the central bindu, which seems to be rising. Painted in blues, this represents for me the female or the feminine aspect.

“A colour spread over three-fourth parts of the earth. A transparent presence in the throat of “Shiva”. A colour with tranquil memory, with mysterious nature. With pacifying look, hiding the depth of ocean. This blue, exactly this blue is burning in Raza’s painting. This colour, this blue colour, this ‘Royal’ blue is burning. A colour known for its coolness and this categorically cold colour has become transparent in Raza’s painting ‘Ocean’ and its tranquility one could see flames, fire and the warmth...Raza cleans its monochromatic solitude and its calm cool sadness, finds a new born burning blue...Raza and colour are one. The colour behaves the way Raza thinks.” Akhilesh, in ‘The Blue which burns’, extracted from Vajpeyi, Ashok/BKA 2007 (43) I p.338-40.

The Ocean I and The Ocean II Invited by the underground railway of Lisbon to do a painting for the Oriente station in the complex that was going to house the 1998 International Exhibition. His works The Ocean I and The Ocean II were reproduced and enlarged on cermic tiles, 3.5 x 13.5m for the walls of the subway. (http://razacatalogueraisonne.com/biography)

“In the next stage the Bindu and its various manifestations led Raza along the path to truth… This journey still goes on, his attempts at purification lately culminated in his White Period. White canvases are not un-painted canvases. On the contrary, they reveal a very sophisticated geometric construction, leading to a pure and serene harmony, to Peace or the Shanti Rasa. Of the nine emotions this is, according to Indian thought, the most difficult to achieve. It calls for years of sustained effort, research and expression, both in life and in artistic pursuits. However, Raza is still feeling ambiguous about his White Period...” Extracted from Imbert, Michel/BKA 2003 (37a).

By 2007, at the age of eighty-five, Raza still aspired towards refining his life-long artistic journey, of wishing to find some inner realisation which deepened his search for a meaning of life… “Raza paints his new works as a homage of gratitude to the world, to nature and to powers that be. He celebrates them colourfully, in joy and tranquility I he seems to be reaching out to an enriching and deeply contemplative silence. These later day works are also objects organically moving towards consonance, harmony and peace not only of colours but also of mind.” Ashok Vajpeyi, rpt. in Raza: A Life in Art. New Delhi: Art Alive Gallery 2007 I p. 128.

“Raza continued to paint from his wheelchair. He also carried on with the practice of uttering some poetic lines before beginning his work. It was usually a verse from Rilke,… It was something like ‘Listen to that voice buried in silence’ – we have it somewhere… It is the artist’s prerogative to subvert linear time and the compartmentalization of history and to recreate a universe of connectivity and seamless humanity… (He) was an artist who felt that his role was to make the unknown rise from its submerged depths of consciousness. An artist who never stopped chasing his dreams…”Yashodhara Dalmia, rpt. In Syed Haider Raza : The Journey of an Iconic Artist. New Delhi: HarperCollins India 2021 I pp.218-220.