Kashmiri Woman in Spring

This oil on canvas by A. A. Raiba compels the viewer to gaze meditatively on the subject—a woman, her eyes closed, head tilting to one side almost in a relaxed manner, the wispy clouds and apple trees synonymous with the land merging seamlessly in the scenery in an expressionist manner in which the artist paints. Raiba had visited Kashmir in the Fifties and this painting, quite possibly, alludes to that time, highlighting the artist’s philosophy of not following any movement, but evolving his own visual syntax and grammar.