Important Notice

After being expelled from the J J School of Art in 1944, F N Souza continued his education in libraries where he first encountered illustrations of classical Indian art and modern European paintings, both different from the academic realism that was being taught in schools at the time. He was fascinated by the symbolism of South Indian bronzes and erotic carvings of Khajuraho as well as masters such as Goya, Bacon, and Rouault.

As Edwin... After being expelled from the J J School of Art in 1944, F N Souza continued his education in libraries where he first encountered illustrations of classical Indian art and modern European paintings, both different from the academic realism that was being taught in schools at the time. He was fascinated by the symbolism of South Indian bronzes and erotic carvings of Khajuraho as well as masters such as Goya, Bacon, and Rouault.

As Edwin Mullins notes, both Romanesque Spain and Picasso, whose Cubist works combined African art, primitivism, and Romanesque art, were major influences on Souza’s own artistic language. His “...iconic stances, frontal compositions and particularly his fantastical construction of the faces with multiple eyes seem to have been influenced by Romanesque art.” (Yashodhara Dalmia, “A Passion for the Human Figure,” The Making of Modern Indian Art, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 98) Over his career, the artist assimilated these various influences to create a distinctive aesthetic with a universal appeal. As critic John Berger once said of him, “he straddles several traditions but serves none.” (John Berger, The New Statesman, 1955)

Through his figures, Souza aimed to portray humanity as it really was. His ‘Heads’ are among his best-known figurative works, often depicted with petrified expressions and distorted features. They first made an appearance in his work in the 1940s, and were “multiple, complex, and imbued with the spirit of provocative defiance of conventions.” (Dalmia, p. 94) The artist himself claimed, “I have created a new kind of face... As you know, Picasso redrew the human face and they were magnificent. But I have drawn the physiognomy way beyond Picasso, in completely new terms... When you examine the face, the morphology, I am the only artist who has taken it a step further.” (The artist in an interview with Yashodhara Dalmia, Bombay, 1991)

“Figurative art presents no problems for Souza because he has succeeded in creating images which are entirely personal, yet recognisable at the same time.”
— Edwin Mullins (Edwin Mullins, Souza, London: Anthony Blond Ltd, 1962, pp. 36-37)

The present lot was painted in 1964, at the peak of the artist’s career. It displays a fluidity that contrasts with the rigid, cross-hatched lines seen in his figurative drawings of the 1950s. Though the form registers as a human head to the viewer’s eye, it is shorn of nearly all its humanity. The visage is fragmented and bound by thick, black lines, and recognisable features such as eyes and teeth are displaced, multiple in number, and acquire grotesque proportions. “Souza’s imagery is not a surrealist vision-a self-conscious aesthetic shock-so much as a spontaneous re-creation of the world as he has seen it, distilled in the mind by a host of private experiences and associations.” (Edwin Mullins, Souza, London: Anthony Blond Ltd, 1962, p. 39)

Through fragmented planes of colour and brisk linework, the figure acquires a kinetic energy that alludes to Souza’s skill as an “action painter”, a term bestowed on him by British critic George Butcher in a 1961 article for The Studio. For him, the painting process was a spontaneous activity conducted in sharp bursts. This work also exemplifies the artist’s masterful use of line to depict anguish, human degradation, and man’s inner malevolence. “Not only did it form the sinews of his work but it existed primarily as an independent expressive means. Typically it registered the savagely brutal which existed below the surface in unflinching strokes giving it coherent form. The mutating shapes which simmered above seemed like the tip of the iceberg constantly reckoning with the violence below. All the more captivating then that the sheer simplicity of the line which achieved a phenomenal power in Souza’s hands could take on the debris of existence.” (Yashodhara Dalmia, “The Underbelly of Existence,” The Demonic Line: F N Souza - An Exhibition of Drawings, 1940-1964, New Delhi: DAG, 2000, p. 3)

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