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Lot 46

 

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One of the paintings from F.N. Souza’s black on black series of works executed in the mid 1960s, the present lot is almost completely covered in the thick black impasto usually reserved for the artist’s bold outlines, with hints of other colours like blue visible underneath. Here, “The substance is black, not the smooth black of pure sensation but a very palpable black, its solidity created by thick brush strokes in different directions and by a... One of the paintings from F.N. Souza’s black on black series of works executed in the mid 1960s, the present lot is almost completely covered in the thick black impasto usually reserved for the artist’s bold outlines, with hints of other colours like blue visible underneath. Here, “The substance is black, not the smooth black of pure sensation but a very palpable black, its solidity created by thick brush strokes in different directions and by a considerable range of tones according to the paint’s direction in relation to the light” (Dennis Duerden, “F.N. Souza”, Arts Review, London, 14 May 1966, p. 215).

A radical, albeit brief departure from his oeuvre at the time, this series of works represents the artist’s technical brilliance as well as his constant need to push the boundaries of his practice. It is also noteworthy that these paintings were executed at a time when Souza was experiencing severe financial problems after his stormy success of the 1950s, and suffering serious bouts of melancholy shortly before leaving London permanently in 1967.

In the present lot, Souza portrays the head of a man in dark monochrome against a similarly coloured backdrop, using only brushstroke and texture to differentiate one area from the other. In the subject’s checkered tunic, however, a few strokes of blue punctuate the blackness. Bordering on the sculptural, this painting recalls the Roman Catholic reliefs and icons depicting the Saints that Souza encountered in Goa’s churches during his youth.

In addition to testing his own limits and challenging traditional notions of colour and painting, Souza’s black on black works pay tribute to the Spanish artist Francisco de Goya, whose work he encountered at the National Gallery in London and admired greatly, and who also produced a series of Pinturas Negras or black paintings. This series perhaps also drew from the experimental monochromatic paintings of conceptual artist Yves Klein, who was represented by some of the same galleries as Souza in London and Paris.

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