Piramal Museum of Art

Piramal Museum of Art presents S.H. Raza: Traversing Terrains, the first major exhibition of the artist since his death in 2016.

One of the most significant artists in Indian Modernism and a founder member of the Bombay Progressives, S.H. Raza’s diverse body of work is a unique amalgamation of his classical French training at École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and his exposure to post-war American abstract expressionism. Raza’s works are imbued with the Indian visual language of his heritage, celebrating the country’s iconography, nature, philosophy, music and poetry.

Piramal Museum of Art, the exhibition will showcase five decades of Raza’s work from the early 1940s to the late 1990s— his early days in Mumbai, his travels around India, to various parts of France, and eventually his metaphorical return to his Indian roots.

The exhibition traces his development as an artist and philosopher, whilst offering insights into his contributions to post-Independence Indian abstraction. The artworks on display highlight Raza’s significant influence on his peers, including the Bombay Progressives Group , and subsequent generations of Indian artists by taking a sweeping view of his rich artistic journey across continents, styles and philosophical musings.

The S.H. Raza: Traversing Terrains exhibition also invites the viewer to discover the dynamic urban context in which Raza worked, and Mumbai’s role as an artistic melting pot for diverse ‘progressive’ energies, whilst also tracing Raza’s unique evolution as an artist.