Important Notice

"The Roman Catholic church had a tremendous influence over me, not its dogmas but its grand architecture and the splendour of its services. The priest dressed in richly embroidered vestments, each of his garments from the biretta to the chasuble symbolising the accoutrement of Christ's passion... The smell of incense."
- F N SOUZA

In the present lot, F N Souza returns to a series of still life paintings that he initially... "The Roman Catholic church had a tremendous influence over me, not its dogmas but its grand architecture and the splendour of its services. The priest dressed in richly embroidered vestments, each of his garments from the biretta to the chasuble symbolising the accoutrement of Christ's passion... The smell of incense."
- F N SOUZA

In the present lot, F N Souza returns to a series of still life paintings that he initially explored in the 1950s, which had a strong ecclesiastical theme. The Roman Catholic Church played a fundamental role in shaping Souza's personal beliefs and his art. As much as he was in awe of its pomp and pageantry, he also found its puritanical dogmas and practices repressive and hypocritical.

Souza's conflicted feelings of wonder and disdain for Catholicism infiltrated all aspects of his art, as seen in lot 15. The present lot critically interrogates the notion of divine sanction, and its various interpretations, vehicles and rituals. In some of his still life paintings, Souza painted objects including the ciborium, chalice and patens that were clearly ecclesiastical. In others, he presents everyday vessels in a religious context, almost as if they stand on an altar awaiting their part in some liturgical practice.

Painted during a highly lucrative period in Souza's career, the present lot comprises stylistic elements that made him an artist to reckon with. "For almost ten years, from 1956 to 1966, he dominated the British art scene, showing his work and selling regularly. He was written about extensively and received praise from critics such as John Berger, Edwin Mullins and David Sylvester, to name a few." (Rasheed Araeen ed., The Other Story: Afro-Asian Artists in Post-War Britain, London: South Bank Centre, 1989, p. 23) Souza's characteristic mastery over the line is evident in his use of oil paint with as much fluidity as a pencil line, even on the texture of fabric. The background is composed of rectangles of colour reminiscent of patchwork, lending three dimensionality to this painting of objects placed in a classical still life composition.

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