Important Notice

"It's all very well talking in metaphors about having one's roots in one's own country. But roots need water from clouds forming over distant seas; and from rivers having sources in different lands."
- F N SOUZA

In his monograph on F N Souza, art critic Edwin Mullins notes that the artist's landscapes "...are often distorted to the point of destruction - houses no more than lopsided cubes... But they never threaten to dissolve... "It's all very well talking in metaphors about having one's roots in one's own country. But roots need water from clouds forming over distant seas; and from rivers having sources in different lands."
- F N SOUZA

In his monograph on F N Souza, art critic Edwin Mullins notes that the artist's landscapes "...are often distorted to the point of destruction - houses no more than lopsided cubes... But they never threaten to dissolve into formalized abstract shapes. The violence and speed with which they are executed keep these images, however distorted, in touch with the painter's vision of what they really are." (Edwin Mullins, Souza, London: Anthony Blond Ltd., 1962, pp. 36, 38)

In the present lot, however, the fury and instability that Mullins describes is replaced with a terrifying calm; rather than an apocalyptic force, the composition is governed by an eerie stillness and the quiet desperation of London in the aftermath of the war. The artist's palette, typically vibrant, is largely muted, with the buildings etched out in Souza's iconic thick black line. "Of the pictorial elements it is decidedly the line which is the most developed part of Souza's vocabulary. Whether it is ornamental or abrupt, lyrical or diabolic, Souza's line is derived from Picasso; from Picasso's unmatched virtuosity in delineating an object or figure with sheer element of line... His paintings are really drawn in paint, the line predominating over all other elements and serving to outline, encase and define an image; serving also to provide tonal variations... and to give the painting a structural and surface unity." (Geeta Kapur, "Devil in the Flesh," Contemporary Indian Artists, New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd., 1978, p. 34)

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