An ongoing exhibition at Thapar Gallery in New Delhi, titled "Master Artist A.A. Raiba: a Unilateral Eclectic," spotlights the work of Indian modernist painter Abdul Aziz Raiba (A.A. Raiba). The show features works from the 1950s and 1960s, including murals, paintings on jute, large drawings, reverse glass paintings, calligraphy, and serigraphs, highlighting his versatility and synthesis of Indo-Islamic traditions, European academic naturalism, the Bengal School, and European modernity.
The exhibition matters because it brings renewed attention to Raiba's underrecognized role in Indian modernism, emphasizing his distinctive use of line and underlying grids to achieve structural precision. By presenting his diverse body of work, the show allows contemporary audiences to engage with his legacy and the broader multistranded synthesis that defined Indian modernist art.