Introduction The language of visual abstraction did not originate in the 20th century. It forms
part of a primordial symbolism in art, to express the ineffable, that which cannot be grasped by any other means but by representing the pure essence of what is conceived. Paintings by Raza contribute to this vision of transcendence.
In India, the use of symbols and signs is sanctified by an ancient legacy of visual abstraction. Geometric symbols are used as yantra: as the power diagram by which the physics and metaphysics of the world are made to coincide with the psyche of the mediator. Islamic calligraphy in Persia and across the world reveals the use of abstraction, to help us contemplate the divine. Hence the prolific use of arches in courtyards and in mosques–as also in churches. They allow us to raise ourselves above daily life and consider life beyond the immediate. Quite apart from graphic symbols, there is reverence in India in wayside shrines of stones, for the lingam and the salagrama, which serve as abstract depictions of the gods Shiva and Vishnu. Sufis have sung about the significance of light as a spiritual substance. This mystical experience of light finds concrete expression in medieval Christian and Islamic architecture. Sunlight filters through to interiors, and stone screens create the play of light and shadow on walls and floors and ceilings. In almost every civilization, celestial geography visualizes the universe in terms of pure geometry, the only means by which planetary spheres can be mapped. The same elements mentioned by the Neoplatonists of the Graeco-Roman world are those of earth, water, fire and air, along with the fifth of the sky or akasa, which constitute the pancha tattvas or the five elements in Indian thought and compose everything that exists in the world. The fear for the contemporary artist in Western abstraction has been that they end up creating art without meaning, “that he may be making mere abstraction”
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Bindu: Space and Time in Raza’s Vision
