FRANCIS NEWTON SOUZA (INDIAN 1924-2002)

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Important Fine & Decorative Art Auction

By Shapiro Auctions

Sep 17, 2016 - Sep 18, 2016

Set Reminder 2016-09-17 10:00:00 2016-09-18 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Important Fine & Decorative Art Auction https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/shapiro/important-fine-decorative-art-auction-1714
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• Lot Description
  FRANCIS NEWTON SOUZA (INDIAN 1924-2002)
  The Lovers: Self-Portrait with Barbara in London, 1967
  gouache, ink and collage on paper
  60 x 45 cm (23 5/8 x 17 3/4 in.)
  signed and dated lower left, inscribed with catalogue number on verso: mmp 67 001
  
  PROVENANCE
  Formerly the Estate of F.N. Souza
  
  The Francis Newton Souza Foundation has confirmed this work will be included in the artist`s catalogue raisonne.
  
  Please note that the buyer will be put in touch with the foundation to receive a non-transferrable certificate.
  
  LOT NOTES
  Over the course of F. N. Souza`s nearly six decade-long career spanning three continents, his imagery remained remarkably consistent. Born in Goa, India, a Portuguese colony, and raised in Bombay, Souza was keenly aware of the frictions between the sensual expression of Indian heritage and the implemented repression of the Catholic Church so prominently contrasted with his Christian upbringing. Moving between drawing, painting, collage and eventually a complex chemical alteration process, Souza`s imagery, focusing on the figures of Christ, mother and child, erotic encounters, together with still lifes and landscapes, for all its timelessness was executed in an intensely progressive visual language that cannot be easily classified or rooted.
  
  Souza`s uncommon ability to mix influences with great self-assurance while inviting the viewer into intimate spaces without entering the arena of sentimentality, contributes to an ever-present tension so prominently featured in this work. It has been pointed out that the artist`s scenes of women and amorous couples can be read as a visual ledger of muses and lovers, and this collage is a perfect example. At the time of its creation in 1967, after almost twenty years in England, Souza and his new bride were ready to leave the ever more stifling atmosphere of London for New York. In this double portrait, the artist pictured himself and his partner, Barbara Zinkant, set against a rigid, airless background, with the vertical pattern of the Victorian wallpaper evoking the bars of a prison cell. The couple is shown engaged in a raw, life-giving act with limbs extending beyond the picture frame; their bodies, barely contained by the composition, threaten to spill over into the space of the viewer.
  
  After the death of Pablo Picasso, Souza`s remark now that Picasso is dead, I am the greatest! was published in the Times of India, and in fact, the similarities in the careers, approaches and visual vocabulary between the two artists abound. Few 20th century artists escaped the pervasive influence of Picasso, and Souza, too, absorbed the lessons of Cubism. As in this particular work, the viewer is presented with a set of broken down planes and perspectives, given the omnipotence to see from multiple directions at once. More deeply than that, however, both artists are celebrated for founding and spearheading the development of modern art movements in their respective counties and paving the way for future generations.
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