Late artist S.H. Raza was a trendsetter all his life and even after the great modernist painter has gone, the story continues. Vadehra Art Gallery is working on a catalogue raisonne on the artist of which the first volume is soon going to be launched. It has been a daunting task to produce this 236 page catalogue. An exhaustive documentation of the artist, it has been priced at Rs.5,500.
Not many artists have catalogue raisonne, a comprehensive and systematic documentation of an artist’s works which are also annonated. In India, S.H. Raza could probably be the only artist to have this special catalogue on him. And Arun Vadehra of the Vadehra Art Gallery feels it could probably spark off a trend.
The first volume which came out last month covers the artistic period of 1958-1971. The basis of this catalogue was Raza’s personal inventory of his works. The artist documented the stock number, title, year, medium and size of over 800 paintings done from 1958 and 1971. Of this, the gallery managed to source 250 images.
Such an extensive documentation is a daunting task for the researchers. In the case of a prolific artist like Raza, it becomes even more tough. “He came back to India in 2011 and he made 400 works till 2016,” says Ashok Vajpeyi, well-known Hindi author and Raza’s close friend.
The catalogue raisonne on Picasso is still going on. “What we also hope is that people who own his works will see the catalogue or come to know about it and contact us to include the work in it. So, we don’t know how many volumes it will go into. It is an ongoing project and our research teams in our gallery in London and Delhi are at it,” says Arun.
A lot of Indian artists should have catalogue raisonne but don’t because of the dense research work and the complexities involved. The catalogue on Raza became possible because of the cooperation extended from the Raza Foundation, a trust created by the artist to support emerging talent. “But even the Raza Foundation has its limitations. We came on the scene quite late. Raza started painting quite early on and we don’t have much details of his earliest works,” states Vajpeyi.
The catalogue was to be released on Raza’s 94th birthday on February 22 but due to his ill health, a formal launch couldn’t take place. The artist could, nevertheless, see the first volume of the publication and was very excited.