Francis Newton Souza

Acquired from a private collector in London, 2010

K. Singh ed., Continuum: Progressive Artist's Group, Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2011, p. 292 illus

K. Singh ed., Manifestations VII, Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2012, p. 174 illus.

polyvinyl acetate and oil ground with further paint layer on top, paint shrinkage and areas of minor loss to top layer of paint, in good overall condition, as viewed
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Souza was born and brought up in the Portuguese Catholic colony of Goa and it was here that he encountered the religious iconography that was to provide him with his artistic vocabulary. 'The Roman Catholic Church had a tremendous influence over me, not its dogmas but its grand architecture and the splendour of its services. The priest, dressed in richly embroidered vestments, each of his garments from the biretta to the chasuble symbolizing the accoutrement of Christs passion. These wooden saints painted with gold and bright colours staring vacantly out of their niches. The smell of incense. And the enormous Crucifix with the impaled image of a Man supposed to be the Son of God, scourged and dripping, with matted hair tangled in plaited thorns.'  (Yashodhara Dalmia, The Making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives, New Delhi, 2001, p.81).

Geeta Kapur describes his Still Life as consisting ‘of things used in liturgical practice. They are mostly ornate vessels and sacred objects. These objects retain their ritual aspect both on account of the visual description and composition... They are moreover, clustered formally as if on the shelf of the sacristy... Apart form the still-lifes of sacred objects, Souza paints still-lifes of an assortment of edible things. Even here there is a frequent appearance of a loaf of bread, a flask of wine and fish, all religious symbols or inclined to be read as such by anyone who knows the sacrament of the Holy Communion... His objects belong neither to the initmate comforts of a home nor to the grandeur of the market-place, both environments being specifically bourgeois in their origins. Very curiously in the object-world he reclaims the sense of the sacred that he so consciously drains from the human being and from God.’ (Geeta Kapur, Contemporary Indian Artists, New Delhi, 1978, pp.29-30).