Mandala might

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On the eve of SH Raza’s 91st birthday, Vadehra Art Gallery presents Antardhwani, an exhibition of his most recent works. It consists of 25 new works executed by the artist after his return to India in 2010. It is heartening to see that an artist who is considered to be a master artist as well as a trendsetter still experiments and modulates his works.

While the preoccupation with geometric elaborations continues to inspire Raza, the lines and demarcations are more fluid, as if his works move from the Created canvas to the instinctual and inspirational void of the Uncreate. The underlying philosophies concealed in the mandalas and yantras can be glimpsed in the latent energies and their release in his paintings. Often erroneously designated as exclusively tantric, the yantra and mandala are the very basis of Indian art — the fundamental concept underlying the creation of sculpture and art, which have been visualised and emotively described by Raza though colours and forms. Raza calls this ‘the mapping out of a metaphorical space in the mind.’
The bindu or the core of the creation, the focus of meditation helps us read and respond to his works, as this core expands and takes on auras and shapes. This can be best seen in ‘Uday Vistaar’ in which the artist juxtaposes three essential geometric forms — the circle, triangle and the line in a square formation in an inclusive composition that encompasses the three realms of Creation.
Raza’s works have evoked much interest and writing by artists and critics over the last 50 years, much of which is compiled in the anthology that accompanies the show. Another important text is a book titled My Dear which contains the long correspondence that Raza conducted with his old friend and senior artist Krishen Khanna. This perhaps is one of the more important documentations of the evolutionary years of modern Indian art, with all its struggles, contradictions, anxieties and painterly concerns through the lens of two practicing artists whose personal histories and concomitant influence on art are well articulated through their letters.