Important Notice

Souza’s deep fascination with the female form continued throughout his career, free from the confines of a fixed medium, as the artist worked with oil, acrylic, pencil, ink and chemical alterations, among other materials. The present lot, an acrylic on canvas work painted in 1989, features the quintessential traits of a Souza nude - a woman unabashedly aware of her raw nudity and the viewer’s gaze.

To the artist, the female body was not... Souza’s deep fascination with the female form continued throughout his career, free from the confines of a fixed medium, as the artist worked with oil, acrylic, pencil, ink and chemical alterations, among other materials. The present lot, an acrylic on canvas work painted in 1989, features the quintessential traits of a Souza nude - a woman unabashedly aware of her raw nudity and the viewer’s gaze.

To the artist, the female body was not just a mere subject to be studied, it was a means to expose the hypocrisy of Catholicism, the religion he was raised in. These works in particular mocked the Catholic Church’s inflexibility and its dogmatic tenets. As Souza explained in his 1992 article “Naked Women and Religion”, published in Debonair, “As a Roman Catholic youth, born in Goa, I was familiar with priests bellowing sermons from pulpits against ‘sex’ and ‘immodesty’ particularly addressed to women, making them stricken with guilt. The Catholic men stood cocky in their suits and ties agreeing with the priests, lusting for naked women inwardly. Hypocrites!” (Yashodhara Dalmia, The Making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 92)

In the 1940s, following his expulsion from the J J School of Art, Souza took to studying in libraries where he came across illustrations of classical Indian art, as well as traditional African art and Byzantine icons. “These were a revelation... Souza made a passionate study of Indian art, and was particularly moved by the South Indian bronzes – with their symbolism and their astonishing feeling for movement - and by the sublimely erotic carvings on the temples of Khajuraho. Both of these made a lasting impression on him, and were largely responsible for awakening the imagination of the young painter.” (Edwin Mullins, Souza, London: Anthony Blond Ltd, 1962, p. 16)

European influences also seeped into Souza’s artistic sensibilities as he drew inspiration from the early works of Gauguin and Picasso and the perspective and stance found in Spanish Romanesque portraits. As Edward Mullins notes, “There are the huge, fleshy nudes who sprawl over his canvases. These are not really erotic paintings in the true sense, but variations of a conventional theme explored by European artists... His nudes are only occasionally painted as beautiful or even as graceful...On the whole his paintings of nudes are more gentle than most of his other work; they have less impassioned ferocity about them. At the same time they are often the most perverse and obsessed... They suggest a personal fascination with the female body.” (Edwin Mullins, Souza, London: Anthony Blond Ltd, 1962, pp. 42-43)

The present lot is rather sedate, in comparison to other nudes, and yet, suggestive. The woman in question adopts a bold frontal posture, while her placid expression, unnervingly confident, grants her a sculptural quality. The artist’s signature bold linework contains his subject’s simple, yet voluptuous features, which have come to be synonymous with a number of Souza’s works.

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