Important Notice

Lot 51

`Souza is a painter with a powerful and strange personal vision. His paintings are neither primitive nor `cultured`. They either move you by their stark interpretation of the visual world, or they repel you....He is an image-maker and not an aesthete or a theorist. These are earth paintings, and their impact lies in the artist`s power to distort and strengthen the eye`s image of this world, and to produce an effect almost shocking in its... `Souza is a painter with a powerful and strange personal vision. His paintings are neither primitive nor `cultured`. They either move you by their stark interpretation of the visual world, or they repel you....He is an image-maker and not an aesthete or a theorist. These are earth paintings, and their impact lies in the artist`s power to distort and strengthen the eye`s image of this world, and to produce an effect almost shocking in its intensity....Souza`s treatment of the figurative image is richly varied. Besides the violence, the eroticism and the satire, there is a religious quality about his work which is medieval in its simplicity and in its unsophisticated sense of wonder.` (Edwin Mullins, Souza, Anthony Blond Ltd, 1962, pp.33, 40)

In this painting, F.N. Souza`s hatched lines, prick the emperors` face, but do not seem to disclose implications of pain or suffering. The strong wavering lines, the distortion of the figure and the displacement of facial features characterize Souza`s style. `As the very morphology of the face begins to form, one marvels at the simplicity of means by which this is achieved. The etiological basis of Souza`s demonic faces consists of two parallel lines cross-hatched on either side like harpooning spears. By dexterously manipulating this he is able to circumvent shading. Instead he achieves an extraordinary mobile visage with flickering nerves, gnashing teeth, and flashing eyes.` (Yahodhara Dalmia, The Making of Modern Indian Art The Progressives, Oxford University Press, 2001, p.83)

Read More
Artist Profile
Other works of this artist in: this auction  |  entire site