Important Notice

F N Souza was avowedly opposed to organised religion and considered nature the source of all life. In the foreword to the second edition of his autobiography Words & Lines , he declared, “My religion is nature. Nature is the sole principle, beginningless and endless. Nature is the creator of God in man’s mind. Not only God, but gods, goddesses, devils, angels and spirits. They are all living in the minds of men and women all over the... F N Souza was avowedly opposed to organised religion and considered nature the source of all life. In the foreword to the second edition of his autobiography Words & Lines , he declared, “My religion is nature. Nature is the sole principle, beginningless and endless. Nature is the creator of God in man’s mind. Not only God, but gods, goddesses, devils, angels and spirits. They are all living in the minds of men and women all over the world! Their creator is none other than the forces of nature. Nature is the creator of everything.” (F N Souza, “Foreword”, Words & Lines, New Delhi: Nitin Bhayana Publishing, 1997)

Despite this belief, he rarely romanticised nature. In the present lot, a vase of flowers appears on the verge of toppling, while a pair of apples seem ready to tumble off the edge of the table. The tempestuous scene seems to be driven by the same “cataclysmic force which wreaks havoc” that characterises his landscapes. (Yashodhara Dalmia, “A Passion for the Human Figure”, The Making of Modern Indian Art, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001, p.93) Starting in the mid- 1960s, the artist traded in his rigid lines for the dynamic, gestural style seen in this painting. This technique prompted British critic George Butcher to describe him as an “action painter” who painted “at a white heat of intensity”. (G M Butcher, “The Image and Souza”, The Studio Volume 162, London, July to December 1961, p. 178) Though Souza’s signature black line remains in this composition, it strains to contain the flowers and fruit. Notably, the work is devoid of overtly religious elements, which made up many of his still lifes of the 1950s and 1960s. Instead, the unrestrained strokes of colour suggest a sense of vitality and highlight Souza’s skill as both painter and draughtsman, and his ability to transcend conventional genres. His imagery is simultaneously grounded in reality and shaped by a personal vision, one that Jagdish Swaminathan describes as “singularly devoid of emotive inhibitions”. (Jagdish Swaminathan, “Souza’s Exhibition”, Lalit Kala Contemporary 40, New Delhi: Lalit Kala Akademi, 1995, p. 31)

Highlighting this quality, Edwin Mullins declared Souza “...an image-maker-like Rouault and Francis Bacon. His art lies in his power to strengthen the eye’s image of this world by distorting it, until it becomes merely the language by which his own mental images are expressed, and the common ground on which we may come to terms with them [...] nothing about his art is descriptive; there is no celebration of nature, no attempt to capture the effect of a sunset, no concern whatsoever with what is “particular” in life. Above all, there is nothing romantic about his paintings.” (Edwin Mullins quoted in the catalogue of F N Souza’s 1962 solo show at Kumar Art Gallery, as reproduced in Francis Newton Souza: Selected Works from 1950–1999, New Delhi: Kumar Gallery, 1999)

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