Francis Newton Souza (1924-2002)

Glenbarra Art Museum, Japan

Contemporary Indian Art from the Glenbarra Art Museum, Yokohama Sogoh Museum, October 20-November 14, 1993
Image Beyond Image, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi and National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, 1993

Y. Dalmia, The Making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives, New Delhi, 2001, no. 47, p. 95 illustrated
Indian Contemporary Art Post Independence, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, 1997, p. 287
Glenbarra Art Museum, Contemporary Indian Art, 1993, p. 131

Canvas appears to be in very good overall condition. One minor area of paint loss lower right corner. Colors of original richer and brighter than catalogue illustration.
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Souza was born and brought up in the Portuguese Catholic colony of Goa. The impact that such an upbringing had upon the artist and the subject matter of his paintings especially those with a religious content cannot be overstated. 'The first 12 years of an artist's life are perhaps the seedbed of his creative life. In the case of Souza, this influence may be summarized as being rural Catholic life as experienced in daily companionship with his grandmother. Her influence with the vitality of folklore gave him a sense of the animistic and spirit ridden atmosphere of fields and home. The ritual symbols of Cross, monstrance, ciborium, on a platform that resembles the Judaic Ark of The Covenant, but with surfaces which are distinctly Goan, are frequently found in Souza's paintings and represent the passion and dread of a heretic creed seeking legitimacy and acceptance. (Maria Aurora Couto, "Souza: In communion with Goa," The Hindu, Sunday, April 7, 2002).

Souza states 'It was the Roman Catholic Church in Goa that gave me any ideas of images and image-making.' (Edwin Mullins, Francis Newton Souza, London, 1962, p. 53). As a child Souza suffered from a serious attack of smallpox and his Catholic mother vowed that if he ever survived she would enroll her son in the Jesuit priesthood. Although Souza never became a priest, religious imagery was a powerful source of inspiration for him, especially during the first few decades as an artist. 'His mother's vow that he would join the priesthood should he be cured appears to have created a deadweight of responsibility on a child's consciousness. A dream world was born: phantasmagoria, hallucinations, angels in paradise, the sun, moon and stars personified, vividly imagined. Souza's work communicates a fear and hatred of the practice and symbols of a religion that fascinate and revolt him in turn. He turns them over again as if playing with the conjurer's tools in a vain attempt to comprehend or destroy. He returns obsessively to make his Christ symbolic of suffering and mankind, dehumanised, vile and ugly, pitiable, surrounded by implacable fate and with no trace of the essence of Christianity the compassion and love that illuminates, for instance, the work of Roualt.' (Maria Aurora Couto, "Souza: In communion with Goa," The Hindu, Sunday, April 7, 2002).

The last supper is a recurring theme throughout the Renaissance and it is likely that Souza on his arrival in London would have been aware of various depictions of this scene including Leonardo Da Vinci's  Last Supper. Although Souza's composition bears only a few similarities to Leonardo's painting, like Leonardo he chose to capture the moment just after Christ tells his apostles that one of them will betray him, and at the institution of the Eucharist. Similarly Christ's head is at the center of the composition, framed by a halo-like architectural opening. These features may be purely coincidental but it is interesting to note that this current lot was produced shortly after Andy Warhol produced his own series of works on the Last Supper each inspired by the mural produced by Leonardo.  Unlike Warhol however Souza draws little upon these ancient images and instead chooses to adapt images from his own sources.  For the most part the features of the apostles are typical of his own stylized heads of the late 1950's and 60's and the work appears to be a powerful reworking of some of his most important early figurative works.

In conversation with Yashodhara Dalmia in 1991 Souza said of the Last Supper 'I have created a new type of face.  In the Last Supper there are two or three faces and they are drawn in completely new iconography, beyond Picasso'...'Dalmia states 'Christ and his ghoulish companions are lined against a horizontal band representing the table.  The entire ensemble brings together a motley group some with tubular projections, others with Martian faces and still others with eyes on the forehead reminiscent of his earlier heads.  Christ seated in the centre has a remorseful expression as he hands the goblet of wine to the elephantine Judas.' (Yashodhara Dalmia, The Making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives, New Delhi, 2001).