Raza Foundation Breaks New Ground, Showcases 100 Young Pathbreaking Artists for S H Raza’s Centenary Celebration

The Raza Foundation recently held an exhibition of 100 young Indian artists, Yuva Sambhava, as part of the centenary celebrations of the great master, Saiyad Hyder Raza. He had a great affinity for young artists and was known to be curious and involved in their works throughout his lifetime. So, the exhibition is indeed a befitting tribute to the master artist. “Beginning in the mid-1970’s, and for nearly three to four decades, Raza’s visit to his homeland from Paris used to cause an unusual stir amongst the young artists specially of cities he would be visiting and staying for a while: Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Bhopal, Jaipur etc. Raza was deeply interested in and had great expectations from the creative works of the younger generations of artists of his country. Many of his friends recall him sitting on the floor with unframed canvases spread, brought by young artists, eagerly listening to him, asking them questions, offering them advice as to what they should deeply study to find directions for their art. He would, once in a while, buy some works,” says Ashok Vajpeyi, the Managing Trustee of Raza Foundation.

Ashok Vajpeyi with S H Raza (File photo)

“This was my dream project to bring hundred young artists of India together just to celebrate the fellow artist. Raza Foundation decided to have five curators from different zones like from East Zone Ushmita Sahu, Meera Menezes from North, Gita Hudson for South Zone, Jesal Thakkar for West Zone and myself chose artists from Central Zone. Each Curator was supposed to choose twenty artists from their respective zones,” informs acclaimed artist and writer Akhilesh. The foundation has received entries from over 60 cities with artists from as far as Ladakh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Bastar, exclaims Akhilesh. Artists selected from the Central Zone include Aditya Singh, Akshay Sakla, Anup Srivastava, Ashish Kushwaha, Baldev Mandavi, Bharat Kumar Jain, Chandrapal Panjre, Durgesh Birthare, Ekta Sharma, Lucky Jaiswal, Mayank Shyam, Poonam Jain, Prabhat Joshi, Pratik Koundinye, Rafique Shah, Ritika Anand, Sunny Malwatkar, Uday Goswami, Uday Kumar Tekam, and Vijaya Chauhan. “It was a huge opportunity for me since I am very young; I graduated from Santiniketan only in 2017 and to be included in the show meant a lot because it is a very big platform where I can display my work to my teachers, senior artists, and curators,” says Ritika Anand, from Bangalore.

By Aishwaryan K

“At present, each Southern state has evolved its own artistic language. The Kerala artists were consumed by literature and created paintings in narrative style. The legacy of this style is still evident in the All Kerala Artists show which recently concluded in Allepey, Kerala. Andhra and Telengana artists produce powerful works with recurring images of fertile women and pastoral people. The delicate lines of Hebbar, performative traditions and the rich embroidery of the state craft play a hidden role in the work of Karnataka artists. This coupled with the fact that Bengaluru is now a hub of contemporary art shapes the work of artists from the state. Tamil Nadu artists are influenced by the vibrant cultural traditions of the state as also by its political culture,” says curator of the South Zone, Gita Hudson. Aishwaryan K., Anju Acharya, Anupama Alias Ezhilarasan Ezhumale, Jaya P S, K.S. Sooraja, Komakula Raja Sekhar, Lokesh B. H., Pradeep Kumar DM, Priyanka Aelay, Puviyarasu Kannadasan, Raju T., Rohini Mani, Sheetal C.S., Shinoj Choran, Vengatesan B., Venkat Ramulu, Jogu Vijayakumar, Viswanath Kuttum, and Vysali Kalidindi were the artists selected from the South Zone. “It is like a check on a bucket-list; like a stamp on our dedication and hardwork… When a foundation like Raza calls you and invites you to participate, it is a dream come true. We had briefly seen Raza during his lifetime but never met him and now it somehow feels as if he has validated our work. The foundation was very supportive with the logistics and invited us to visit the show where we got an opportunity to not only meet other young artists but senior artists. Also, I feel very good that artists from the south were represented on an equal platform. The display was fantastic, it was not zone-wise, and we were very excited to go from gallery to gallery to find out where our artworks were displayed. Even Vajpeyiji pointed this aspect about the display and appreciated it,” says Aishwaryan K from Bangalore.

By Nema Ram, also an Abir artist

“As the curator for the North Zone, it was my responsibility to include 20 artists from Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Haryana. I soon realized that this was not a simple demographic to identify, especially given the medium-specificity. To add to the challenge there was the Covid situation. We, in Delhi, had just been through the devastating Delta wave, which had traumatized many families, snatched loved ones or left others fatigued and suffering the effects of long Covid. The idea of travel in such a scenario was daunting and much as I would have loved to have visited the various states and art colleges, the risks appeared immense,” shared Meera Menezes about working on the project during the peak of the pandemic. Ankur Yadav, Arindam Manna, Divya Singh, Gyanwant Yadav, Muskaan Singh, Nasir Hassan, Neeraj Patel, Priyank Gothwal, Ritika Sharma, Shah Ifra, Shailesh BR, Sibdas Sengupta Snober, Jeelani Shah, Sonam Chaturvedi, Sunil Yadav, Tahsin Akhtar, Tehmeena Firdos, Tsering Motup Siddho, Vikrant Kano, and Vipeksha Gupta were selected from the North Zone.

By Aditya Singh

“For some time now, I have stressed the development of alternative discussions focusing on artists working with little to no infrastructural backing. Apart from Bengal and to some extent in Assam, there is a lack of support structure and patronage in the other eastern states, leading many artists to relocate in search of opportunities. Although artists have had to move back to their hometowns over the past two years due to monetary exigencies or lack of opportunities brought about by the pandemic. Hence, being invited to curate a section of the exhibition (twenty artists from the eastern states of India) was an opportunity to share agency with those who have taken up the challenge of living life on the margins,” shares Ushmita Sahu, curator of East Zone. Aditi Raman, Anirban Saha, Arjun Das, Avinash Karn. Bhaskar Bordoloi, Biswajita Moharana, Jyotiprakash Pradhan, Kanchan Karjee, Keerti Pooja, Manas Naskar, Manash Talukdar, Naphisabiang Khongwir, Nimmee Sinha, Pinaki Ranjan, Mohanty Rajdeep, Das Santanu Debnath, Sewon Rai, Sitikanta Samantasinghar, Ujjal Dey, and Vivek Das were the artists selected from the East Zone.

By Pinaki Ranjan

“The intuitive gaze (dristi) has over the centuries expanded its vision, perceiving the abstract form (arupa) as well as its constructed form (rupa), in all its spiritual, philosophic, ecological and political dynamics. The artists chosen for this exhibition are consistently molding the context of art through sub-textual imprints of its history, culture, metaphysics, socio-politics and ecology. The selection is not restricted to or limited by the genre of pure and/or formal abstraction, figuration or conception, but is inclusive by the reverberations of a collective genesis embedded within a universal synthesis. Through their enquiries, the artists present records of cognitive perceptions, and responses charged with intuitive insights—a combination that characterizes their expressions as eclectic, integrative, poignant and sublime,” notes Jesal Thacker, curator of West Zone. Artists selected from the West Zone include Amit Harit, Archana Singh, Chandrashekhar V.Waghmare, Chirag Kumawat, Dhiraj Pednekar, Imran Jatu, Nema Ram, Jangid Pankaj, Vishwakarma Pradeep, Jogdand Rajesh Kargutkar, Rashesh Chauhan, Richi Kamal Bhatia, Sandip More, Sneh Mehra, Sucheta Ghadge, Sunil Kumar, Kumawat Sweety, Joshi Tejswini, Narayan Sonawane, Urvi Sethna, and Yogesh Ramkrishna. “I have been tremendously inspired by Akhileshji, his personality and his thoughts. Slowly I developed my own perspectives. My works revolve around the themes of nature. I feel only the human being is changing at such a fast rate; compared to it others seem stagnant. This was the theme of the work displayed at the show,” says Amit Harit from Jaipur, Rajasthan. “It was a surreal experience to see almost 300 works of 100 young artists displayed so well under one roof. I commend the impeccable management of the event that brought together displays in five different venues. There could not have been a better way to celebrate Raza,” says Sandip More from Mumbai.

Manish Pushkale, the exhibition’s organizer, provided deeper insight into the conceptualization and execution of the large-scale project. “After the pandemic, the younger generation has suffered a lot. One of the main motives of this show was to restore the confidence of young artists,” he shared. Furthermore, the works of artists below 40, reflected a bold new vision. “We saw new trends rather than established norms. Also, during the process of curation we realized that the struggle of the artist is also a universal struggle,” Pushkale says.

The exhibition will be on view in New Delhi at different locations from March 26 to April 10.