Mumbai, Feb 22 (IANS): India Post has released a Special Cover to mark the 100th birth anniversary of renowned painter Sayed Haider Raza, whose five day-long exhibition starts at the Piramal Museum of Art in Byculla on Wednesday.

The first physical expo in Mumbai after two years of the coronavirus pandemic, it showcases Raza's artworks from his time in Bombay from 1943-1950, showing the city through his lens in a then newly Independent India full of hopes and aspirations.

Chief Postmaster General (Maharashtra & Goa) Veena Srinivas, Post Master General (Mumbai Region) Swati Pandey, Piramal Museum of Art Director Ashvin Rajagopalan, Piramal Group Chairman Ajay Piramal, Raza Foundation Managing Trustee Ashok Vajpeyi and others unveiled the Special Cover on Raza.

The exhibition will display some unseen Raza works and select masterpieces from the Piramal art collection, reflecting his love for Mumbai and a glimpse of the upcoming city as a melting pot of various cultures.

Born in Kakkaiya in modern day Madhya Pradesh, Raza lived and worked mostly in France but returned to India around 2010.

He studied at the Nagpur School of Art, followed by Sir J. J. School of Art in Mumbai, and went to Paris in 1950 to the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts.

Over the long decades of his trailblazing artistic career, with exhibitions around the world, he was honoured and decorated with many awards including Padma Vibhushan (2013).

Raza passed away in New Delhi on July 23, 2016, aged 94.