India-Forums.TV

[nahia]

NEW DELHI: At a time when M F Hussain has taken up Qatar citizenship, another distinguished painter Syed Haider Raza has moved back to India after spending nearly six decades in France. Speaking exclusively to The Times of India, Raza, who will be 89 next month, turned nostalgic. "I love my country and want to spend my last years here. I'm very happy to return to India. India is mine and I am all Indian. Despite living in France for 60 years, I remained an Indian citizen, maintained relations with my country and read Gita Pravachan and Ramayan. I continue to read and write in Hindi," says the veteran artist who's decided to make Delhi his home.

A wistful Raza looks forward to visiting his native village in Madhya Pradesh's Mandla district coming summer. Health permitting, of course. "I want to kiss the ground of Mandla, my birthplace where I spent my early days with my brother, sister, mother and father. Jee karta hai ki iss dharti ko phir se choom loon. It is like touching my mother's feet," says Raza, who arrived in India on the night of Dec 29, 2010. He made his first public appearance for artist Teji Grover's exhibition at Arpana Fine Arts Gallery in the Capital on Monday.

Raza maintained that the city of Mumbai too has given him great love and affection. "But the traffic condition and the fast pace of life there is not up to my liking at this age. Nonetheless my love for the city remains. I have fond memories of my early days there. In that city, I met some very fine artists in 1948. We worked with great passion and formed the Progressive Artists' group with K H Ara, F N Souza and the likes," he said.

Ashok Vajpeyi, chairman, Lalit Kala Akademi, said that shifting to India after spending more than half his life in Paris was an act of daring. "But friends and artists always knew that there was a lot of India in Raza when he was in France and now, we'll see a lot of France in his paintings when he's going to be in India," Vajpeyi said.

As a young painter, Raza shifted to France in October 1950 to study at the Icole Nationale Supirieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris on a government of France scholarship. He settled in Paris post his marriage to French artist Janine Mongillat in 1959. "She was the only daughter and her mother was reluctant that she leaves her country. So we settled in Paris. After Janine died in 2002, having no children I decided to move back to my country."

Sharing his views on Indian art and its reach in world market today, Raza maintained that Indian artists have done exceptionally well both at home and abroad. "The world sees Indian art as very important. Artistes like Amrita Shergill, F N Souza and Jamini Roy are incomparable. We have about 30-40 Indian artists who are considered very important on the international scene."

Raza, however, is sad that his old friend M F Hussain has shifted base to Qatar. "He's a very old friend and it's very sad what's happened. I don't know anything about politics. I keep to my paintbrush. It's sad that he had to leave India. But I'm happy that I could come back."

On June 10, 2010, Raza's seminal work, Saurashtra, sold for a staggering Rs 16.42 crore ($3,486,965) at a Christie's auction. But the distinguished painter is upset with the 2009 controversy over his fakes. "It's very disappointing to see that people don't create their own art but copy from artists like us," he said.