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Lot 28

 

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Through the mid 1950s that Souza began to paint the distinctive `heads` for which he is well-known today. These portraits, often vehicles for the artist's contemptuous socio-religious commentary, were "full of apparent contradictions: agony wit, pathos and satire, aggression and pity. Their impact is certain but few people are able to explain what has hit them" (Edwin Mullins, Souza, Anthony Blond, London, 1962, p.39).

Although the... Through the mid 1950s that Souza began to paint the distinctive `heads` for which he is well-known today. These portraits, often vehicles for the artist's contemptuous socio-religious commentary, were "full of apparent contradictions: agony wit, pathos and satire, aggression and pity. Their impact is certain but few people are able to explain what has hit them" (Edwin Mullins, Souza, Anthony Blond, London, 1962, p.39).

Although the present lot is executed with the same thick black line, and shows the same high-set eyes and missing brow as the artist`s other heads, which are typically male, this portrait is among the fewer female heads that Souza painted. Typically choosing to portray his women as voluptuous, full figure nudes, this portrait seems almost restrained in comparison. Here, the subject does not have a violently pockmarked face or arrows piercing her skin which characterizes of the male heads that Souza created during the years. Perhaps an allusion to the strong women who helped shape Souza`s life, including Maria Figueiredo, his wife at the time and later one of his most supportive dealers, this figure is serene and confident. Correspondingl the insect perched on her arm in an almost parasitic fashion could be a self-reference on the part of the artist, who often described himself as a ' maggot' in his early years.

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