Francis Newton Souza (1924 - 2002)

Good overall condition. Colors fairly accurate to catalogue illustration, but richer.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

In 1956, on the heels of both the publication of Nirvana of a Maggot and his first solo exhibition at London's Gallery One, Souza was introduced to the American collector Harold Kovner by gallerist Iris Clert in Paris. Kovner was immediately impressed with Souza's work, and thus began a sponsorship of the artist which lasted through 1960. Under Kovner's patronage, Souza could live and work without financial worries for the first time in his life.

The Kovner years were extremely productive for Souza, and the artist produced some of his finest and most iconic work, of which the current painting from 1957, Temple Dancer, is a magnificent example.

In the current work, one finds a poignant tenderness Souza reserves for a rare selection of his female nudes. The naïve beauty; earthy, spare palette; and lack of physical ornamentation are all distinct departures from other nudes from this early period. Layered with thick impasto delivered with heavy slashes of the palette knife, the texture and depth the current work offers the viewer a thoroughly ripe, tactile presentation.

The dispassionate gaze of the temple dancer betrays her divine profession. Much like the Vestal Virgins in Rome, the temple dancer (devadasi) of India were young girls dedicated to Hindu temples to enact the esoteric ritual duties of those sacred arenas, including music, dance and later, prostitution.

From amongst the founding members of the Bombay Progressive Artists' Group and the post-Independence Modernists innovators, it was Souza who pioneered the frontal nude. Throughout his life, Souza continued to paint nudes in many forms. In his early paintings, the influence of classical Indian temple carving is apparent in the jewelry, hair ornaments and posturing—in particular, the elegant frontal composition of tribhanga, the triple bend of the neck, waist and knee. It has been suggested that Spanish Romanesque art has inspired Souza's iconic stance and frontal composition, and although the current work post-dates Souza's shift to London, the form of the nude remains firmly entrenched within an Indian context.

Edwin Mullins explains: "Souza found in classical Indian sculpture and miniatures a tradition of erotic art incomparably more sensitive and pure than the lifeless figures after Raphael so admired by art professors, and Hoffman's 'blond operatic Christs and flaxen-haired shy virgins' which as a child he had been encouraged to imitate at the Jesuit School in Bombay. Although Souza can hardly be called a traditional artist, nevertheless his first masters were the nameless sculptors who carved the sacred city of Khajuraho," (Mullins, Souza, London, 1962, p. 44). 

Like the nudes of Manet, Picasso and Rouault, Souza's nudes go beyond the boundaries of convention. Unlike his contemporary M.F. Husain, there is no attempt to attain the 'innocence' of folk art; his intention is rather to face the contemporary world head on. The artist had to face his own divine predicament: although brought up in a land of ancient beliefs which venerated the female form as a symbol of fertility, Souza was born and raised in the Roman Catholic Church, where nudity and sex were powerfully associated with the concept of Original Sin.

The very notion of a temple dancer was considered utter sacrilege in the context of the Catholic Church, and of course presented Souza with an intoxicating combination of three of his favorite subjects: religion, sex and the female nude. Ever the iconoclast, Souza explains: "As a Roman Catholic youth born in Goa, I was familiar with the priests bellowing sermons from the pulpit against sex and immodesty particularly addressed to women, making them stricken with guilt. The Catholic men stood cocky in their suits and ties agreeing with the priests, lusting for naked women inwardly. Hypocrites!" (Souza, "Naked Women and Religion," Debonair, 1992).