Important Notice

“I borrow from all and sundry and turn everything into a personal idiom.” - F N SOUZA

F N Souza’s strict Roman Catholic upbringing had a lifelong impact on his work. He was fascinated by the symbolism and iconography associated with the religion from an early age, writing in his autobiography, “The Roman Catholic Church has a tremendous influence over me, not its dogmas but its grand architecture and the splendour of its services.... “I borrow from all and sundry and turn everything into a personal idiom.” - F N SOUZA

F N Souza’s strict Roman Catholic upbringing had a lifelong impact on his work. He was fascinated by the symbolism and iconography associated with the religion from an early age, writing in his autobiography, “The Roman Catholic Church has a tremendous influence over me, not its dogmas but its grand architecture and the splendour of its services. The priest, dressed in richly embroidered vestments, each of his garments from the biretta to the chasuble symbolising the accoutrement of Christ’s passion… When the Scristan came around with the collection plate I would drop on it, with great satisfaction, the large copper coin given to me by my grandmother. I felt I had paid an installment for the salvation of my soul.” (F N Souza, Words and Lines, 1959)

Though he eventually renounced religion and became an atheist as an adult, images of Christ, Biblical themes, saints, and clergymen frequently dominated Souza’s oeuvre. Rather than beatifying these figures, he sought to expose the hypocrisy of the Church and its manipulation of power through violent imagery and fiendish portraiture. In his words, “Renaissance painters painted men and women, making them look like angels. I paint for angels to show them what men and women really look like.” (Edwin Mullins, Souza, Anthony Blond Ltd: London, 1962, p. 82)

The present lot is an interpretation of the Christian creation myth of Adam and Eve, a subject which Souza revisited at different stages in his career. In his 1958 drawing, Untitled (Adam and Eve), the two figures are depicted through erotic imagery with the artist’s signature cross-hatched lines and spiky forms. His 1971 painting, The Garden With Adam and Eve, utilises a bright colour palette and vigorous Expressionist brushstrokes that lend the Garden of Eden a sense of foreboding that is compounded by the disfigured visages of Adam and Eve.

Painted in 1992, towards the end of his career, this present work is proof that Souza remained an astute draughtsman even in his later years. The thick, black lines delineating the figures are controlled, yet fluid and dextrous. A signature of many of his works, they are reminiscent of the stained-glass windows of churches Souza would have encountered as a young boy in Goa and later on a trip to Italy in 1960, as well as allude to the influence of Chaim Soutine and Georges Rouault whom he admired.

Lopsided buildings in the background, which feature in many of the artist’s landscapes from the 1950s and 1960s, place Adam and Eve in an urban setting rather than the Biblical Garden of Eden. The frontal, icon-like composition of Adam and Eve shares a likeness with Romanesque art, which Souza encountered on a visit to the National Museum of Catalan in Barcelona. Notes art historian Yashodhara Dalmia, “The particularly medieval form of Christianity, with its revengeful God, was likely to have found an affinity with Souza.”(Yashodhara Dalmia, “A Passion for the Human Figure,” The Making of Modern Indian Art, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 98)

By placing the figures at the forefront, Souza confronts the viewer with the sins of mankind. Yet he casts no judgement but instead showcases a detached observation of human degradation. Unlike many of his figures, the features of Adam and Eve are not highly distorted and retain their humanity. “Although Souza ostensibly exorcises the shame of sin from the image of Eve (so unforgettably portrayed in the art of Europe), her freedom remains, in his hands, a very doubtful proposition. Proud in her role of temptress, she is still a captive of desire and this time, on account of a flaw in the artist’s consciousness, not that of God. She has no opportunity to fashion her own identity, moulded as she is by man’s desire.” (Geeta Kapur, “Francis Newton Souza,” Contemporary Indian Artists, New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House Pvt Ltd, 1978, p. 25)

The serpent looms prominently over both figures, a symbol of the Original Sin. Souza uses a similar Biblical metaphor when describing his drive to create art as a way to expose the dark side of human nature. He writes, “It is the serpent in the grass that is really fascinating. Glistening, jewelled, writhing in the green grass. Poisoned fangs and cold-blooded. Slimy as squeezed paint. Green hood, white belly from chin to tail, yellow eyes, red forked tongue, slimy; careful not to put your foot on it; treacherous like Satan yet beautiful like him... And a serpent knows how to tempt with apples... An apple somehow contains several truths. There is Adam’s apple, Newton’s apple, Berkeley’s apple, Cezanne’s apple. Painting contains all these and more accumulated truths. That form of illusion, gravity and tension, sublimation of guilt, colour and geometric structure, the subtlety of a serpent, the diabolic beauty of Satan, the wrapped mystery of a living foetus.” (F N Souza, Words and Lines, London: Villiers Publications Ltd, 1959, pp. 10 - 11)

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