F N Souza
(1924 - 2002)
Lovers
Throughout his artistic career, F.N. Souza’s body of work has been defined by the alternately twinned and divergent forces of sex and religion. Always provocative, whether tormenting or pleasurable, on their own or united, these two grand narratives inform almost all of Souza’s creative output, particularly his paintings from the 1950s and 60s.
Nowhere, however, do these themes collide more violently than in Souza’s various...
Throughout his artistic career, F.N. Souza’s body of work has been defined by the alternately twinned and divergent forces of sex and religion. Always provocative, whether tormenting or pleasurable, on their own or united, these two grand narratives inform almost all of Souza’s creative output, particularly his paintings from the 1950s and 60s.
Nowhere, however, do these themes collide more violently than in Souza’s various depictions of lovers. To the artist, raised in a devout Catholic atmosphere, lovers embodied the ‘original sin’ and also came to represent the rigidity and hypocrisy he later attributed to religious dogma, explaining his disfiguring and hostile depiction of their act. In these striking works, the man was often linked to the corrupt clergy, preaching against lust and lechery at the pulpit while covertly practicing it in the brothel and bedroom. The woman, on the other hand, was alternately rendered as an inactive participant, letting her partner have his way with her so that she could get on with her affairs, or a hypersexual temptress, asserting her control over the events playing out on the surface.
In this 1964 canvas, “a roué with bared teeth crawls on all fours towards a woman whose black-stockinged legs and brassiered breasts only emphasise the provocative thrust of her haunches. Her hands are in the form of a dog’s paws, as if to define the level of relationship on which this game is played…the violent brushwork, the lurid colours, the sense of claustrophobia and suffocation suggest an underworld of coarseness and malevolence” (Ebrahim Alkazi, Souza’s Seasons in Hell, Art Heritage, Season 1986-87, New Delhi, p. 74). The cross that the woman wears prominently around her neck emphasizes Souza’s tumultuous relationship with organized religion and the Roman Catholic Church, where he sought salvation but only found pretense and Janus-faced duplicity. Rather than the epitome of purity and motherhood, the woman wearing the cross is almost animalistic in her appearance and behaviour, giving in to her most sordid desires.
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Lot
98
of
140
SUMMER AUCTION 2008
18-19 JUNE 2008
Estimate
$150,000 - 180,000
Rs 60,00,000 - 72,00,000
Winning Bid
$218,500
Rs 87,40,000
(Inclusive of Buyer's Premium)
USD payment only.
Why?
ARTWORK DETAILS
F N Souza
Lovers
Signed and dated in English (upper right)
1964
Oil on linen
44.5 x 68.5 in (113 x 174 cm)
PUBLISHED:
Souza’s Seasons in Hell, Ebrahim Alkazi, Art Heritage, New Delhi, Season 1986-87
Category: Painting
Style: Figurative
ARTWORK SIZE:
Height of Figure: 6'