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Lot 52

 

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Unabashedly conscious of their immodesty, Souza’s nudes are perhaps intended to subvert the morality and norms of the Catholic Church to expose and defy its inflexibility and self-righteousness. As the artist explained in his 1992 article “Naked Women and Religion”, published in Debonair magazine, “As a Roman Catholic youth, born in Goa, I was familiar with priests bellowing sermons from pulpits against ‘sex’ and ‘immodesty’ particularly... Unabashedly conscious of their immodesty, Souza’s nudes are perhaps intended to subvert the morality and norms of the Catholic Church to expose and defy its inflexibility and self-righteousness. As the artist explained in his 1992 article “Naked Women and Religion”, published in Debonair magazine, “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, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2001, p. 92).

Souza’s treatment of the nude and the erotic, however, greatly varied, especially in during the early 1960s, arguably the artist’s most prolific period. Some of his women were rendered as dark and disfigured goddesses, lashing out with claws and fangs. Others, with their legs splayed out, put their hyper-sexuality on flamboyant display, and still others were graceful and reticent, seeming full of innocence. This variance mirrored the artist’s multiple sources of inspiration, which included the voluptuous forms of ancient Indian temple art, the early works of Gauguin and Picasso, and the perspective and stance of Spanish Romanesque portraits.

This 1961 nude is one of Souza’s more sedate works. The bejeweled queen, suggestively brushing her hair off her face seems introspective, contemplating herself in a mirror rather than confronting an audience. The artist’s definitive black line effortlessly creates and contains his subject’s simple, yet voluptuous features. Though her bold frontal posture and blank stare make her seem almost sculptural, her flowing hair and simple gesture suggest a very human vulnerability.

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