In the 1980s, contrasts of light and topographic details have vanished. Lines that are often parallel form a sort of oblique floor as if the artist saw it fleeing from his feet in a false perspective.
The title is explicit and indeed significant: the painting displays the harmony of the warm undertones of the earth in burnt sienna, yellow ocher, red, brown and green. This unquestionable interpretation is also a hint to find the meaning of the mystical works of Raza, his other abstract line of the same period.
Raza shakes dimensions, removes limits, captures the viewer, communicates with the ground, in much subtle colors. His abstract art is one of the most expressive, in the following of Balla, Mondrian, Rothko, Pollock and Zao Wou-ki.
On June 10, 2010, Christie's sold for £ 2.4M including premium Saurashtra, an acrylic on canvas 2 x 2 m painted in 1983.
On 15 September 2010, the same auction house sold for $ 1.93M including premium an example of La Terre painted in same technique and size in 1985.
The acrylic on canvas La Terre for sale by Saffronart in New Delhi on September 4 has a similar inspiration. Painted in 1986, this picture is centered with a big black spot that opens a gaping path to the Hindu wisdom. This painting 162 x 178 cm is estimated Rs 5 crores, equivalent to US$ 830K, lot 15.