Sayed Haider Raza, a modern Indian painter, participated in the founding of the Bombay Progressive Artists' Group, bringing together the greatest local artists after India's independence.

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Influenced by abstract expressionism and post-impressionism, Raza joined the Fine Arts in Nagpur and then the Sir JJ School of Arts in Bombay. With his group, he actively participated in the aesthetic debates of his time and developed a modernist language. He gradually left figurative painting for more abstract compositions, characterized by clouds of stains that were more in line with the symbolism he was looking for.

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In 1950, Raza moved to France, where he joined the École de Paris movement. During the years 1950-1960, he immersed himself in abstract expressionism, only to return in the 1970s to the sources of Indian aesthetic philosophy. In recognition of his talent, he received the Padma Shri Prize from the President of India in 1981.

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“I tried to introduce this consecration of space in the same way that a musician plays the raga in the morning, evening, or night. The painting should express an experience. I tried to replicate the feeling given by the day, by Rajasthan, by a festival, by a storm, by a church...” - S.H. Raza.

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In 2023, a exposure dedicated to S.H. Raea is organized at the Pompidou Center in Paris. The Raza-Gorbio Foundation manages and promotes the successions of the artist and his wife Janine Mongillat (1929-2002). ‍