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Lot 78

 

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Souza’s series of ‘heads’ from the 1950s are among his most important figurative works, which he used as a conduit to express a scathing social commentary on human nature. The present lot was painted in 1957 when the artist found himself on the threshold of success after spending the beginning of the decade struggling to break into the art scene in bleak Post-War London. The work is stylistically similar to his 1955 portrait series, ... Souza’s series of ‘heads’ from the 1950s are among his most important figurative works, which he used as a conduit to express a scathing social commentary on human nature. The present lot was painted in 1957 when the artist found himself on the threshold of success after spending the beginning of the decade struggling to break into the art scene in bleak Post-War London. The work is stylistically similar to his 1955 portrait series, Six Gentlemen of Our Times, and shows a frontal figure whose “soulless eyes are placed on the forehead, the gnashing mouth is fully bared, and the face is a ridged, rocky terrain bounded by lines and petrified by its own violence.” (Yashodhara Dalmia, “A Passion for the Human Figure,” The Making of Modern Indian Art, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 83) His robe-like attire suggests he is a priest or a member of the clergy, indicative of Souza’s preoccupation with the Catholic church.

By distorting the features of his figures, Souza unmasks the moral corruption of the gentry and exposes the hypocrisy of saints and the clergy without redemption. He once declared, “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.” (The artist quoted in Edwin Mullins, Souza, London: Anthony Blond Ltd., 1962, p. 82) Multi-faceted and complex, the artist’s aesthetic incorporated both Eastern and Western influences, ranging from classical Indian sculpture and Goan folk art to the works of masters such as Titian, Bacon, and Picasso. The iconic composition and frontal stance of the figure and stiffness of its appearance seem to have been influenced by Romanesque art, which flourished in Spain in the 11th and 12th centuries. Remarks art historian Yashodhara Dalmia, “The particularly medievial form of Christianity, with its revengeful gods, was likely to have found an affinity with Souza.” (Dalmia, p. 98)

The present lot is also proof of Souza’s exceptional draughtsmanship and the surprising simplicity of his powerful and expressive lines, which made his works so impactful. He firmly believed, “The outline is the scaffolding on which you hang your painting. It is the structure without which art cannot exist and becomes wishy washy… Within the structure you add paint and paint and structure are one and the same. There is a totality about it.” (The artist quoted in Yashodhara Dalmia, “The Underbelly of Existence,” The Demonic Line, New Delhi: DAG, 2000, p. 3)

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