Important Notice

“Figurative art presents no problems for Souza because he has succeeded in creating images which are entirely personal, yet recognisable at the same time.” — (Edwin Mullins, Souza, London: Anthony Blond Ltd., 1962, p. 36)

Edwin Mullins wrote in his monograph on F N Souza that the artist’s “particular strength lies not in his refusal to admit the importance of abstract art, but in his capacity to find in figurative painting... “Figurative art presents no problems for Souza because he has succeeded in creating images which are entirely personal, yet recognisable at the same time.” — (Edwin Mullins, Souza, London: Anthony Blond Ltd., 1962, p. 36)

Edwin Mullins wrote in his monograph on F N Souza that the artist’s “particular strength lies not in his refusal to admit the importance of abstract art, but in his capacity to find in figurative painting everything that he needs; so much so, that he cannot understand why any other artist can do anything else.” (Edwin Mullins, Souza, London: Anthony Blond Ltd., 1962, p. 36) He used figuration as a means of both creative expression and social commentary though his portrayals were often deliberately grotesque and boldly defied the conventions of realism.

The present lot belongs to Souza’s series of ‘Heads’, which he began making in the late 1940s, and are considered among his best?known works.. As art historian Yashodhara Dalmia has remarked, “It is in depicting heads that Souza introduced his most inventive features that bring to the fore his whole painterly arsenal.” (Yashodhara Dalmia, “A Passion for the Human Figure”, The Making of Modern Indian Art, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 94) In this work, the artist portrays a male figure with an elongated head, high?set eyes, a long chin, and barred teeth set against a flat background. “…because his images are clearly intended to be human, one is compelled to ask why his faces have eyes high up in the forehead…why he paints mouths that stretch like hair combs across the face…Souza’s imagery is not a surrealist vision-a self-conscious aesthetic shock-so much as a spontaneous re-creation of the world as he has seen it, distilled in the mind by a host of private experiences and associations.” (Mullins, p. 39)

The far-reaching influence that Souza’s Catholic background had on his art is apparent in both his subject and technique. The figure appears to be wearing a clergyman’s robe while the crown of thorns placed on his head indicates that the artist may have also intended it to be interpreted as Christ. Though once a devout churchgoer, Souza rebelled against its authoritarian structure as he grew older. He dedicated much of his art to unmasking the hypocrisy of religion and its representatives through distorted drawings and paintings of Christ, saints, and members of the clergy. Unlike the deified representations seen in much of Western art, he depicted these figures with malevolent visages or stiff demeanours and wholly devoid of the compassion conventionally associated with Christianity. Expressing his abhorrence of the hypocrisy of the powerful, he wrote in his 1959 autobiography Words & Lines: “And if God sends his Son again you will have to break Him in His very bones so that He will not rise again. But think of the Lord Mayors and the Bishops and the R.S.P.C.A. officials and all the little good?mongers, officials, ecclesiastical and civil, running up and down the city street… your suffering is far more complex than the obviously simple tortured expression of one crowned with thorns, and impaled with nails.” (F N Souza, “Notes From My Diary,” Words & Lines, London: Villers Publications Ltd., 1959, p. 20)

The frontal composition has its origins in religious iconography, particularly images of saints and Christ that surrounded Souza during his childhood in Goa, as well as Spanish Romanesque or Catalan fresco paintings. Critic Geeta Kapur explains, “Souza’s paintings [...] show that he adopted not only that peculiar transfixed aspect of the medieval image but specific details such as the manner of delineating the facial features and modelling the limbs with a faint shadow on the inside of a distinct black outline.” (Geeta Kapur, “Francis Newton Souza: Devil in the Flesh”, Contemporary Indian Artists, New Delhi:Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd., 1978, p. 19)

The bold black lines, which are typical of Souza’s style, recall the stained-glass windows of Goan churches as well as the works of French painter Georges Rouault. Noting his extraordinary draughtsmanship Dalmia writes, “Not only did it form the sinews of his work but it existed primarily as an independent expressive means [...] the sheer simplicity of the line which achieved a phenomenal power in Souza’s hands could take on the debris of existence.” (Yashodhara Dalmia, “The Underbelly of Existence”, The Demonic Line: An Exhibition of Drawings 1940 – 1964, New Delhi: DAG, 2001, p. 3)

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