Sayed Haider Raza (also known as SH Raza) was born in 1922, Babaria Madhya Pradesh, India.

He studied painting at the Nagpur School of Art and the Sir J.J. School of Art, Bombay. Founder member of the progressive Artists’ Group, he presented several exhibitions of his paintings in India, before leaving for France on a French Government Scholarship, in 1950. He studied painting at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux - Arts in Paris from 1950 to 1953.

S.H. Raza was awarded the Prix de la Critique, in Paris, in 1956. He has presented numerous individual exhibitions of his paintings and has participated in group shows and salons, including the International Biennales: Venice, Sao Paulo, Menton and the Triennale, New Delhi.

In 1959, he married the French artist Janine Mongillat.

The University of California invited him as a visiting lecturer at the Art Department of Berkeley, in 1962. He revisited India in 1959, 1968, 1978, 1984 and 1985, and since then, every year, to establish tangible relationship with Indian concepts, contemporary art and life.

In December 1978, the Madhya Pradesh Government invited him to his native state for a homage and an exhibition of his works in Bhopal.

He was awarded the Padma Shri by the President of India in 1981 and was elected fellow of the Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi in 1983.

S.H. Raza lives and works in Paris and in Gorbio, A.M. France.