In the 40s: F N Souza Review

 “Who has heard of a professional artist in India? An “artist” was a fellow who could draw designs for pillow cases, cushions and petticoats for girls to embroider your name and address on your trunk lest it be stolen on the Indian Railways or on your umbrella lest it be stolen in the monsoon.”

- F.N. Souza 

As for many world renowned artists, Francis Newton Souza, unjustly struggled for a lifetime to earn the space he deserves in the world of art. He is now one of the most extravagant artists in India who led a wildly interesting life, punctuated by many marriages and divorces; split between the cities of Mumbai, London and New York. Souza, who died in 2002 at the age of 78, is the only Indian artist who has a room dedicated to him in the Tate Modern, London. 

Saffronart, Grosvenor Gallery and Sunaparanta have collaborated in a landmark exhibition of works by Francis Newton Souza (1924-2002) from the 1940s to the 1950s. The exhibition will be taking place simultaneously across the three galleries; Grosvenor Gallery in London (14 December 2018 - 25 January 2019), Sunaparanta in Panjim Goa (17 December 2018 - 30 January 2019), and Saffronart in New Delhi (19 December 2018 - 18 January 2019). New facets of Souza’s complex character are on show with “Souza in the 40s”, is a comprehensive exhibition which skillfully showcases Souza’s little known but very significant period of his early artistic career.

Born in 1924, he grew up in the Roman Catholic colony of Portugal, Goa. He faced tragedy in his youth in the form of his father’s death and was raised by his mother, who was a dressmaker. Later, he suffered a near fatal encounter with smallpox, which changed his outlook on life completely as an adolescent. He moved to Mumbai with his mother. 

The details of Souza’s rebellious style and artistic talent can be garnered from his early youth. He was expelled from St. Xavier’s High School for depicting nude pornographic images on school property, however, he claimed he was only correcting the already drawn figures in the bathroom stalls. Later he attended Sir J.J. School of Art, only to be expelled again for taking part in the Quit India Movement. He was briefly a member of the Communist Party, which he left when they started dictating the terms and conditions of how he should create his art. 

(Untitled (Nude), 1948, Pencil on paper; 33.6 x 21.1 cm)

Elegantly and sympathetically, “Souza in the 40s” reflects the foundational stage of his legacy, Souza’s fragile and often-conflicted relationship with the art establishment, and, ultimately his transcendence and sublimity as perhaps the greatest modern artist in post-war India. The nature of  projects vary from the seemingly ordinary - human anatomy sketches, still life, women drawings on paper to the frankly visionary - landscape and portraits, watercolour or gouache on paper. The sketches of somewhat unfinished in bare line drawings and pared-down sketches - by turns whimsical, sacred, profane and unrestrained sexuality, depicted the making of the artist during the formative years of his career.

Souza was not merely a dismantler. In 1948, he served as a founding member of the Progressive Artists’ Group. This movement was started along with Krishnaji Howlaji Ara, Syed Haider Raza, Maqbool Fida Husain and others. Albeit through different artistic styles, they shared a vision for progressive art in India and promoted the international avant-garde amongst young artists.

Fierce-anticlerical, Souza created exaggerated and distorted figures that challenged the conventions and aesthetic of existing traditions in India. Souza’s nudes idealised beauty in its most raw and honest form. He jolted everyone with his exploration of the hypocrisy of the church and clergy cutting through society’s mask disguising the ugliness, suppressed violence and animal urges. Whereas his Goan landscapes comprised a colour palette of pristine shades of green outlined by sketchy black showing the inherent clash between nature and civilisation. 

Souza believed drawing to be the structural base of any artists’ vision. Drawing is foremost considered to be an intimate and spontaneous artistic expression which is guided by inner thoughts. Souza’s range of drawings, especially from the 1940s reveals his appreciation for the human form, letting it run freely in a minimalist form of linear purity mixing science and art to create powerful images. 

Souza was experimental with an array of mediums. Embodying his life time experiences of travelling and living in different corners of the world moulded his artistic expression and oeuvre. He once stated that for him, all pervading and crucial themes of predicament of man are the ones of religion and sex. This was slowly accepted and even invited by the society. He was profoundly original and bold, and appallingly honest with his work through which he wanted to confront and celebrate all the ugly aspects that no one dared to bring out into the spotlight. His robust body of work conveyed a canny, and often daring perspective on visual art, encompassing the personal, sensual, the religious, the pure, and the profane.

The works displayed represent the most important decade of his life as he embarked on the journey of becoming a creator, with artworks in their purest form, ranging from figurative drawings to still life. Souza had a sculptor’s imagination, none of the dfigurements are ever used twice. The future is invented with fragments of the past added with an element of intellectual honesty, his work allures people towards his perspective.

Grosvenor Gallery was founded in London 1960 by an American sociologist Eric Estorick who collected and eventually exhibited some of the major European artists of the time such as Picasso, Chagall and Lissitzky. Since the last 15 years the gallery has also shifted its focus on South Asian paintings and sculptures, predominantly works of the Progressive Artists Group. The gallery’s vision was to promote Indian art in the UK and international art in India. Hence, since 2006, the first exhibition that Grosvenor Gallery collaborated with an Indian art gallery, they continue to showcase the best contemporary and modern art from South Asia.