Important Notice

Lot 9

 

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After he was expelled from the Sir J.J. School of Art in Bombay in 1945, F.N. Souza spent his free time “…studying in libraries, where he discovered for the first time illustrations of classical Indian art and of modern European painting. These were a revelation… Souza made a passionate study of Indian art, and was particularly moved by the South Indian bronzes – with their symbolism and their astonishing feeling for movement – and by the... After he was expelled from the Sir J.J. School of Art in Bombay in 1945, F.N. Souza spent his free time “…studying in libraries, where he discovered for the first time illustrations of classical Indian art and of modern European painting. These were a revelation… Souza made a passionate study of Indian art, and was particularly moved by the South Indian bronzes – with their symbolism and their astonishing feeling for movement – and by the sublimely erotic carvings on the temples of Khajuraho. Both of these made a lasting impression on him, and were largely responsible for awakening the imagination of the young painter” (Edwin Mullins, Souza, Anthony Blond Ltd, London, 1962, p. 16).

In 1948, Souza and Husain visited the India Independence exhibition in Delhi together, where the classical Indian art on display, particularly the carvings and sculpture, made a lasting impression on the two artists and their work. The present lot, one of Souza’s nudes from the early 1950s, reflects this impact in its primitive simplicity and bold, voluptuous form. Symbolic of femininity, strength and fecundity, these early nudes also drew from the artist’s engagement with African art as well as the work of Picasso and the Spanish Romanesque painters, which he encountered after moving to London in 1950.

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