Syed Haider Raza (1922-2016), known as S. H. Raza, was born in Babaria, Madhya Pradesh, and studied at the Nagpur School of Art and later at the Sir J. J. School of Art in Mumbai. He was a founding member of the Progressive Artists’ Group in 1947.

Raza moved to Paris in 1950, where his early work focused on expressionist landscapes before gradually evolving into a highly structured abstract language. His later paintings are centred around the Bindu, a geometric and symbolic form that became the core of his visual vocabulary.

He is regarded as one of the most important figures in Indian modern art, known for synthesising Indian philosophical concepts with international modernist abstraction.