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66
67
I
n the post‒war climate of London, artists like
Francis Bacon used their art to reflect the brutal
reality of a society still reverberating from the war.
Souza—whom critics have often likened to Bacon and
who was himself reeling from the political atmosphere
of a newly independent India—experienced a similar
disillusionment in London when he painted the present
lot in 1953. Souza’s subjects during this time were the
savagely distorted heads of the everyman, with soulless
eyes displaced to the forehead, a set of gnashing teeth
bared, and the face “a ridged, rocky terrain bounded
by lines and petrified by its own violence.” (Yashodhara
Dalmia, “A Passion for the Human Figure,”
The Making of
Modern Indian Art: The Progressives
, New Delhi: Oxford
University Press, 2001, p. 83)
The present lot shows Souza’s early experiments with
the crosshatching technique that was to become his
trademark style. The complex patterns of stabs and
slashes across the face further serve to excoriate his
subjects, and demonstrate his unmistakably harsh
commentary on humanity and its decadence. “It was a
damning denouement of an affluent society that had
a cankerous serpent at its core. For Souza’s piercing
vision had seen the embittered, hardened man who
had emerged from this society and had represented
him bared of all disguises. These were works without
redemption.” (Yashodhara Dalmia,
Souza in London,
New
Delhi: British Council, 2004, p. 10)
According to critics, Souza’s demonic faces were also
representations of the self, as seen in self‒portraits of the
artist from this time. An accompanying poem expresses
his cynical observations on humanity:
Reproduced from F N Souza,
Words & Lines
,
London: Villiers Publications Ltd., 1959
46
F N SOUZA
(1924 ‒ 2002)
Head
Signed and dated 'Souza 1953' (centre left); inscribed
and dated 'F.N. SOUZA/ Head/ 1953' (on the reverse)
1953
Oil on board
22.25 x 16 in (56.8 x 40.9 cm)
$ 93,750 ‒ 125,000
Rs 60,00,000 ‒ 80,00,000
PROVENANCE
Acquired directly from the artist, New York
Private Collection, Mumbai
Saffronart, 10 September 2015, lot 35