Important Notice

In the post-war climate of London, artists like Francis Bacon used their art to reflect the brutal reality of a society still reverberating from the war. Souza-whom critics have often likened to Bacon and who was himself reeling from the political atmosphere of a newly independent India-experienced a similar disillusionment in London when he painted the present lot in 1953. Souza's subjects during this time were the savagely distorted heads of... In the post-war climate of London, artists like Francis Bacon used their art to reflect the brutal reality of a society still reverberating from the war. Souza-whom critics have often likened to Bacon and who was himself reeling from the political atmosphere of a newly independent India-experienced a similar disillusionment in London when he painted the present lot in 1953. Souza's subjects during this time were the savagely distorted heads of the everyman, with soulless eyes displaced to the forehead, a set of gnashing teeth bared, and the face "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: The Progressives, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 83)

The present lot shows Souza's early experiments with the crosshatching technique that was to become his trademark style. The complex patterns of stabs and slashes across the face further serve to excoriate his subjects, and demonstrate his unmistakably harsh commentary on humanity and its decadence. "It was a damning denouement of an affluent society that had a cankerous serpent at its core. For Souza's piercing vision had seen the embittered, hardened man who had emerged from this society and had represented him bared of all disguises. These were works without redemption." (Yashodhara Dalmia, Souza in London, New Delhi: British Council, 2004, p. 10)

According to critics, Souza's demonic faces were also representations of the self, as seen in self-portraits of the artist from this time. An accompanying poem expresses his cynical observations on humanity:

Eyes in the brow the better to see
with the brain

Stars in the face are the scars of
Smallpox

Arrows in the neck life flies mean
Affliction

The grinding of the teeth is not in
the Day of Resurrection

But today
The jacket, tie and stiff collar
are signs of respectability.

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