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Lot 29

 

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"Eyes in the brow the better to see
with the brain
Stars in the face are the scars of
Smallpox
Arrows in the neck like 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."
- F N SOUZA

In the postwar climate of London, artists like Francis Bacon used their art to reflect the... "Eyes in the brow the better to see
with the brain
Stars in the face are the scars of
Smallpox
Arrows in the neck like 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."
- F N SOUZA

In the postwar 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 at the time he sketched the present lot.

As in the present lot, Souza's subjects from this time were often savage 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)

Souza's early experiments with the crosshatching technique, which was to become his trademark style, are visible in the present lot. 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)

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