Important Notice

Fondly recalled by his acquaintances, F N Souza's personality was unforgettable and loomed outsized in a room full of people. Much like the personality, his works created an atmosphere, striking at first and then alluring and immersive in a surreal way. Souza notes - "Roger Berthoud wrote this about my work: 'His canvases are very strong meat indeed. I confess it has taken me a year or two to acquire a taste for his work.' If an art critic took... Fondly recalled by his acquaintances, F N Souza's personality was unforgettable and loomed outsized in a room full of people. Much like the personality, his works created an atmosphere, striking at first and then alluring and immersive in a surreal way. Souza notes - "Roger Berthoud wrote this about my work: 'His canvases are very strong meat indeed. I confess it has taken me a year or two to acquire a taste for his work.' If an art critic took that long, people in general would take longer to digest my stuff." This might be true of Souza's art, but it received the due recognition and is highly appreciated even today.

Souza had made London his home between 1949 and 1967, with sojourns in Paris and Rome before he moved to the USA, finally settling in New York until his death in 2002. The present lot, painted in 1964, is a gestural sketch that situates itself at a time when his works give way to an apocalyptic vision, a reflection of his stay in post-war London, demarcated with excessive cross hatched lines and spiky forms (compare lots 35 and 74). Not so barren trees grow in different directions in the foreground behind which dilapidated buildings are stacked against each other on a heightened plane.

As seen in the present lot- "Of the pictorial elements it is decidedly the line which is the most developed part of Souza's vocabulary. Whether it is ornamental or abrupt, lyrical or diabolic, Souza's line is derived from Picasso; from Picasso's unmatched virtuosity in delineating an object or figure with sheer element of line... 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." (Geeta Kapur, "Devil in the Flesh," Contemporary Indian Artists, New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd., 1978, pp. 56?57)

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