Francis Newton Souza (1924-2002)

One of the greatest strengths of Souza's work is that he remained tirelessly experimental.  The bold complex heads of the 1950s created with thick cross hatching become further distorted in the early 1960's to result in complex mutated forms. The artist states 'I have created a new kind of face...I have drawn the physiognomy way beyond Picasso, in completely new terms.  And I am still a figurative painter...He stumped them and the whole of the western world into a shambles.  When you examine the face, the morphology, I am the only artist who has taken it a step further.'  (Dalmia, 2001, p. 94)