F.N Souza Painter, Writer and Visionary

Indian art has always entangled in itself history, religion and philosophy. India can boast of many a great artiste of the century. Francis Newton Souza was one such artist. He was the first experimental artist from India to achieve wide spread fame in the west.

Birth and Education

He was born on April 12, 1928 in Goa and was Christian by religion.

He studied Art at the J.J. School of Arts in Mumbai but was expelled from the school for his participation in the Quit India Movement way back in 1942.

Souza’a career went steady and he started participating in a lot of exhibitions and shows. Souza was the founder of the Bombay Progressive Artist’s Group. He encouraged all painters to participate in the avant-garde movement. Souza moved to England in the 1950’s.

Souza Paintings

F N Souza’s painting appeared ephemeral with his incensed brushstrokes, criss-cross lines and glossy borders. His paintings seemed grave and futile, pressing and mocking at you. Souza reasserted the intensity of impressions with utmost desperation. Souza’s painting
seemed to attack the canvas. It was as if he waged a war against it. Souza combined the art of ex-pressionism of Rouault and Soutine, fortitude of Cubism and ancient Indian classical sculptures to paint beautiful landscapes, crucifixes, popes and priests etc. Lines were
Souza’s forte. Souza always painted and still left something in his paintings which made them mysterious and captivating.
Souza Writings

What threw Souza into fame was his autobiographical essay ‘Nirvana of a Maggot’ which appeared in 1955 in a magazine edited by Stephen Spender. ‘Words and Lines’ was his other great book which was published in London in 1959. In 1967, Souza settled in New York.

Awards

Soon after independence, he left for Britain, and then for New York, where he received the Guggenheim International Award.
Exhibitions

His works are in the collections of the Tate Gallery, London and the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi. His works were exhibited at the Gallery Creuze, Paris in 1954, at Arts 38, in London, in 1975 and 1976, and at the Bose Pacia Modern, in New York, in 1998.Souza has
also been a part of the Commonwealth Artists of Fame exhibition which was held in London in 1977. He has also participated in several other exhibitions which include one-man shows in Paris in 1954 and 1960 and in Detroit in 1968. In 1987, his retrospectives were held in New Delhi
and Mumbai. He also exhibited his work at the Indus Gallery in Karachi in 1988. In 1996, his paintings were displayed at New Delhi again. In 2005, as part of their British Art Collection, the Tate Britain devoted an area to Souza’s works so that Britain art lovers could
appreciate his work time and now.

Last Days

In his last days, Souza painted many pictures under the title “Goa portfolio” where he added inspiring quotes. Souza was always viewed as a brilliant painter, a good writer, a visionary and a pathfinder. Although Souza lived in the west; first England then New York, he remained a through Indian at heart.

Death
Souza returned to India shortly before his death, Souza was laid to
rest in Sewri cemetery in Mumbai, in a quiet funeral after his death
on March 28, 2002.


Souza was one of the early modernist in the true sense of the term.
Souza’s work had hints of ex-pressionism and British neo-romanticism.
F. N. Souza also received positive appreciation from John Peter
Berger, an art critique. Berger also said that Souza’s style was
deliberately eclectic.