The book of Raza: Browsing through the artist's catalogue raisonné

How many artworks did Pablo Picasso make in his lifetime? The answer — about 16,000. We know this from "the Zervos", a 33-volume catalogue raisonne (comprehensive list, along with other details) that came out between 1932 and 1978, published by Christian Zervos, an art critic and close friend of Picasso, with active help from the artist.

Similarly, do you know how many paintings MF Husain made or FN Souza, or Jamini Roy, or any other well-known Indian artists? No, we don't.

The only artist we have an (incomplete) answer for is Syed Hyder Raza, the first volume of whose catalogue raisonne was launched early last year. That volume covered Raza's career between 1958 and 1971, and includes 270 works painted by him during this period. A second volume, between 1972 to 1985 is due next year, says Anne Macklin, the researcher who put it together. "It's an on-going project and we hope that by 2022, the year of Raza's centenary, we'll have done four volumes," says Ashok Vajpayee, a trustee of The Raza Foundation that has been supporting the Catalogue Raisonne-project, along with the Vadehra Art Gallery in Delhi.

But even this is a limited list, because by 1958, Raza was an established artist who'd been painting to much public acclaim for at least a decade and a half. He'd lived in France for some eight years and had won a prestigious award for his art in 1956. Prior to his French sojourn, he'd helped found the Progressive Artists' Group, modern India's most influential art collective, and had also won awards at the well-known Bombay Art Society.

Even the 270 paintings in the first volume of the Raza catalogue raisonne is a fraction of the 800 paintings that Raza had carefully documented for these years, noting down title, year, medium and size, says Macklin. The 270 were the only ones among the 800 or so for which the researchers could find images and other details of ownership, so vital to putting together a catalogue raisonne. But, as Macklin says, "with a career spanning over 70 years, it was clear that the task of listing all of Raza's works was going to be rewarding, but a long one. Some artist's catalogue raisonne's have been known to take decades to complete."

No wonder, Raza is the only Indian artist for whom a catalogue raissone is being compiled. "I don't know of any other artist — not Husain, not Tyeb Mehta — whose works are being similarly catalogued," says Arun Vadehra of the Vadehra Art Gallery.

So why is a catalogue raisonne important? According to Roobina Karode, curator at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, "A catalogue raisonne is an absolute necessity for historical research, and understanding the development of an artist's style." It has a more vital role — in checking the flourishing market in fakes, a huge problem with top line artists such as Raza whose works are hugely sought after. La Terre, a canvas he painted in 1973, became the sixth most expensive painting sold at an action, when it fetched `18.8 crore at a 2015 auction by Christie's. "Raza was really shaken by the presence of several fake paintings at an exhibition of his works at the Dhoomimal gallery in 2009," says Vajpayee.