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FRANCIS NEWTON SOUZA
(indian 1924-2002)
UNTITLED-HEAD
Inscribed verso 'From the Estate of F.N. Souza/Signed and printed Shelley Souza/ March 7-2008' and 'Executed by F.N. Souza in 2001.' and with the Estate number 'AC-ND-001', acrylic on canvas
30 x 24 in. (76.2 x 61cm)
provenance:
Estate of the artist.
note:
The Francis Newton Souza Foundation has confirmed that this work will be included in the artist's forthcoming catalogue raisonné . A certificate confirming that this work is from the Estate of F.N. Souza will be issued to the buyer.
In September 2001, Souza was invited to participate in a month-long residency program in California, hosted by Saffronart. The cataclysm of 9-11 in New York had a profound effect on the artists in attendance. Souza's response to 9-11 in this painting is a Socratic figure, clearly a self-portrait, who exudes a sense of calm and internal repose. The eyes, though seemingly blind, ironically, illuminate the rest of the features, and pull the viewer's gaze into their unfathomable depths. They appear to reveal nothing; yet one has a sense, looking with their gaze, at a future unsullied by history. Souza uses bright, complementary colours, juxtaposing orange streaks that dash across the figure with a sense of urgency, against an Aegean background of blue that calls forth endless sky on a sunny day. The figure's stature and tunic is a reminder that the culture of ancient Greece produced some of the greatest artists and philosophers in human history; such that their legacy became the cradle of western civilization. The effect of rapid brushstrokes and the flat application of paint evoke for the viewer a remembrance of the new style that Picasso's Demoiselles brought to bear with unrivalled influence on 20th Century art, and that came to be recognized as the turning point in European modern art. Here, at the beginning of the 21st Century, Souza has discarded his trappings of modern expressionism-thick paint applied with palette knife, and heavy black lines girding his subject matter-to create a self-portrait that dares the viewer, as he does, to see, that in spite of political upheaval in America, a new art, with new possibilities, and new philosophical meaning, has already begun to speak of a very different future.
Shelley Souza is the artist's daughter and a trustee for the Francis Newton Souza Foundation. We wish to thank Shelley Souza for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.
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