F N Souza
(1924 - 2002)
Untitled (Landscape and Face)
The present lot juxtaposes two of Souza's favourite subjects, figure and cityscape. The structural duality is enhanced by the black and white sky in the two sections of the painting, with only hints of red tying both parts together. The stark black sun offers a counter-point to the staring eyes of the boldly delineated, classically featured face. In later years, Souza wrote, "Black is the most mysterious of all colours. Renoir found...
The present lot juxtaposes two of Souza's favourite subjects, figure and cityscape. The structural duality is enhanced by the black and white sky in the two sections of the painting, with only hints of red tying both parts together. The stark black sun offers a counter-point to the staring eyes of the boldly delineated, classically featured face. In later years, Souza wrote, "Black is the most mysterious of all colours. Renoir found it impossible and said a spot of black was like a hole in the painting. I cannot agree..." (F.N. Souza, "Paint it Black, Review of Black Art and Other Paintings", The Observer, 15 May 1966). The black sun, a rare motif for Souza, is a recurring subject among some of Souza's fellow Progressives, like Raza and Husain, for whom it is a critical feature of their aesthetic language. The cityscape is structured with great clarity, powerful lines and energetic forms: "Souza's landscapes... seem to be driven by a cataclysmic force, which wreaks havoc. Most of these cityscapes are following, at first, a simple rectilinear structure, which later, in the 1960s, gives way to an apocalyptic vision." (Yashodhara Dalmia, The Making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 93). The present lot is unusual as Souza attempts to balance the large figure on the left with the uninhabited landscape to the right of the frame. After Souza's move to London, he continued to "make drawings that etched out his adopted city as an alienating maze structure, without any people." (Roobina Karode and Shukla Sawant, Gayatri Sinha, ed., "City Lights, City Limits: Multiple Metaphors in Everyday Urbanism", Art and Visual Culture in India 1857- 2007, Mumbai: Marg Publications, 2009, pp. 192-193)
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43
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THE TIES THAT BIND: SOUTH ASIAN MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ART
30 NOVEMBER-1 DECEMBER 2016
Estimate
$180,000 - 240,000
Rs 1,22,40,000 - 1,63,20,000
USD payment only.
Why?
ARTWORK DETAILS
F N Souza
Untitled (Landscape and Face)
Signed and dated 'Souza 59' (centre)
1959
Oil on board
29 x 37.5 in (73.5 x 95.5 cm)
PROVENANCE Gallery One, London Christie's, London, 17 October 2003, lot 508 Sotheby's, New York, 17 September 2009, lot 14 Private Collection, New Delhi Private Collection, UK
PUBLISHED Gayatri Sinha ed., Art and Visual Culture in India 1857-2007 , Mumbai: Marg Publications, 2009, p. 4 (illustrated)
Category: Painting
Style: Figurative
ARTWORK SIZE:
Height of Figure: 6'