Important Notice

Lot 51

 

Quick Zoom

The importance of lines in F N Souza’s compositions can be attributed to his intensive training in draughtsmanship. Souza’s art education in both India and Europe left him a very accomplished draughtsman with an emphatic belief in the power of linework as the foundational pictorial element. Souza elucidates his philosophy of image-building as, “Drawing is the armature, the anatomy, the structure. I see drawing as solid even when I easily draw in... The importance of lines in F N Souza’s compositions can be attributed to his intensive training in draughtsmanship. Souza’s art education in both India and Europe left him a very accomplished draughtsman with an emphatic belief in the power of linework as the foundational pictorial element. Souza elucidates his philosophy of image-building as, “Drawing is the armature, the anatomy, the structure. I see drawing as solid even when I easily draw in pure outline. It’s good to remember Euclid: a point has no length or breadth but has a position. A line is made up of a number of points. A number of lines make a plane. A number of planes make a solid. This geometric formula underlines the draftsmanship of the greatest of artists...” (“Idiom and Expression”, Aziz Kurtha, Francis Newton Souza: Bridging Western and Indian Modern Art, Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing, 2006, p. 98)

In the present lot, thick fluid lines of brown and black that outline the subject and part of the background make up the most prominent pictorial element of the work. Art critic Geeta Kapur appoints the line as the “most developed part of Souza’s vocabulary.” She identifies Pablo Picasso’s profound impact on Souza’s practice as having influenced his linework. “Whether it is ornamental or abrupt, lyric or diabolic, Souza’s line is derived from Picasso; from Picasso’s unmatched virtuosity in delineating an object or figure with the sheer element of line.” (“Francis Newton Souza”, Geeta Kapur, Contemporary Indian Artists, New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House Pvt Ltd, 1978, p. 34)

To Souza, line takes primacy over colour when constructing a work. He considered it the most basic building block of an image. He explained its crucial role in his practice, “Drawing for me is essential in order to build up the structure of my iconography. Drawing is a system from which colours hang.” (Kurtha, p. 98) This is evident in the present lot where the sturdy dark lines are as striking to the viewer as the largely brown and red palette.

Although the Expressionists were a formative influence on him, his works betray a strong preference for line over colour. Kapur explicates his deviation from Expressionist thought by describing his work as such, “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.” (Kapur, p. 34)

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