He is the founding member of the Progressive Artists’ Group. S H Raza 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.

Raza was awarded the Prix de la Critique in Paris in 1956. The University of California, Berkeley, invited him as Visiting Lecturer at the Art Department in 1962. 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 Akademi, New Delhi in 1983.

S H Raza’s work is in the collections of the Musee National d’Art Moderne, Paris; Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Musee de Grenoble; Musee de Menton; Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; Baroda Museum, India; Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai; Jehangir Nicholson Museum, Mumbai; National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi; Roopankar: Museum of Fine Arts, Bhopal; Fukuoka Art Museum, Japan; Asia Society, New York and the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts.

Raza lives and works in Paris and Gorbio.