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Lot 29

 

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An early work, the present lot reflects F.N. Souza's discovery and close study of classical Indian art, following his expulsion from the Sir J.J. School of Art in Bombay in 1945. According to his biographer, Edwin Mullins, "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... An early work, the present lot reflects F.N. Souza's discovery and close study of classical Indian art, following his expulsion from the Sir J.J. School of Art in Bombay in 1945. According to his biographer, Edwin Mullins, "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" (Souza, Anthony Blond Ltd, London, 1962, p. 16).

Experimenting with form and colour, Souza's early works like this painting provoked a range of reactions from critics and the public. Speaking about these, Dr. Hermann Goetz, curator of the Baroda Museum and buyer of the artist's first painting, noted, "He has shocked many who cannot imagine a green or blue-red human body…who cannot stand a simplification intended to intensify an experience, or a distortion of proportions suggesting a sense of earthbound heaviness, ghoulish obsession, lightness or spiritualization, who cannot face the frank statement of sex which is sublimized not by suppression but by association and interplay with the experiences of the soul" ("Rebel Artist Francis Newton", Marg, Vol. 3, No. 3, 1949).

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