Mumbai-based artist A A Raiba dead at 93

According to Raiba, it was the Austrian who also encouraged him to explore India, which resulted in the artist travelling extensively and eventually spending several years in Kashmir, a period that went on to prove artistically significant for him. However, this resulted in Raiba missing out on the beginnings of the commercial art scene in Mumbai’s Kala Ghoda, led by galleries like Pundole and Chemould, which ultimately meant that Raiba dropped out of the narrative of modern Indian art.

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The artist spent most of his final years, ignored and impoverished, in a small flat with his family.

“He was never studied the way that he should have been, and it was only recently that he started getting the attention that he deserved,” said Sumesh Sharma who, along with fellow curator and co-founder of Clarke House Initiative Zasha Colah, exhibited his works in three shows after “discovering” the artist in 2011. Sharma describes Raiba as a “modernist driven by the idea of being industrious”, and points to the works he did on jute canvases as indicative of his penchant for innovation with materials.