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Souza in the Bahamas, 1971
StoryLTD, 18‒19 July 2017, lot 32
With its distinct orange and green palette, the present lot embodies the apocalyptic vision that dominated
Souza’s landscapes from the 1960s. The irregular, swerving brushstrokes in this 1964 painting create an unsettling,
incendiary atmosphere; it appears as though the tightly packed structures and the surrounding foliage are set
ablaze. Houses and steeples of churches lean precariously, on the verge of tumbling down. Both the post‒war
gloom of Britain, and the mounting tension between nations in the aftermath of the war, fuelled such expression.
Yashodhara Dalmia writes that his landscapes of the 1960s “seem to be driven by a cataclysmic force, which
wreaks havoc... The tumbling houses in their frenzied movement are also symbolic of all things falling apart, of
the very root of things being shaken...” (Yashodhara Dalmia,
The Making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives
,
New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 93) Through such works, Souza upended the conventional idea of the
landscape as a pristine and romantic getaway, and used the theme to explore his fears of impending destruction.
His crisp black lines and confident handling of structure are clearly visible in this expressive work.