An exhibition titled 'Master Artist AA Raiba: A Unilateral Eclectic' is currently on view at Thapar Gallery in New Delhi, showcasing works by Abdul Aziz Raiba from the 1950s and 1960s. The retrospective highlights Raiba’s diverse practice, including murals, paintings on jute, reverse glass paintings, serigraphs, calligraphy, and sketches, and features landscape works from his Kashmir sojourn between 1957 and 1959.
The exhibition matters because it brings renewed attention to Raiba’s distinctive contribution to Indian modernism, synthesizing Indo-Islamic traditions, European academic naturalism, the Bengal School, and European modernity. By presenting his command over line, form, and grid-based compositions, the show underscores Raiba’s independent artistic approach and his role in shaping a unique modernist vocabulary in post-independence India.