Has Goa forgotten the great F N Souza?

Last month, March 2024, Francis Newton Souza created another record for himself. His work ‘The Lovers’, a 1960 oil on board, went under the hammer for approximately Rs 40.69 crore at a Christie’s auction in New York. It is now the most expensive Souza work to have been ever sold at an auction.

A 100 years after he was born, and over 20 years after he died, Souza continues to dominate the art world. On April 12, 2024, is his birth centenary and while there have been exhibitions and articles on him in the run-up to the centenary across the world, in Goa the celebrations are rather subdued.

Souza was born in Saligao and went to study art at the J J School of Art. A rebel from a young age, he was expelled from the school in the pre-Independence period, and that perhaps allowed him to explore his talent unrestricted by art school theories.

A founder member of the Progressive Artists Group that shaped the Modern Art movement in India, Souza went on to become the toast of the art world as he travelled through Europe and later the United States of America, where he died in 2002.

Artist and curator of Museum of Goa, Subodh Kerkar, describes Souza as ‘definitely one of the greatest artists the world has seen’ and says that Goa is indeed fortunate that he was born in Saligao.

“He was of course influenced by Picasso, but in 1947 when India gained Independence, there was this progressive group of artists of which he was a member and they decided to give a direction to Indian art. It was not just their personal development as artists, but they were also giving direction to the future art of the nation,” says Subodh and adds, “He was a visionary, it was a totally new aesthetics that he introduced to Indian painting.”

The accolades for Souza come from all quarters. One has to just surf the internet to find an umpteen number of these. A few examples are reproduced here, to indicate just how great an artist Souza was.

On the website fn-souza.com, an excerpt from the book ‘Souza’ by Edwin Mullins says: “Souza then made a passionate study of Indian art and was particularly moved by the South Indian bronzes and the sublimely erotic carvings on the temples of Khajuraho... One of the things which shocked him at that time was the ignorance of these great traditions on the part of men who called themselves painters.”

DAG, an Indian art company with galleries in New Delhi, Mumbai and New York writes on its website, “Souza found his own blunt, extreme style by combining the expressionism of Rouault and Soutine with the spirit of cubism and the sculptures of classical Indian tradition. He combined fierce lines with cruel humour. Nudes, landscapes, and portraits—he painted in every style, and in every medium, even inventing ‘chemical alterations’, a method of drawing with the use of chemical solvent on a printed page without destroying the glossy surface. This helped him to experiment with the layering of multiple imagery.”

When Souza died in 2002, The Guardian wrote, “Over the years his subject matter remained consistent. Crucifixes, last suppers, erotic nudes, the mother and child, still lives and landscapes. In later years, he developed the ‘chemical works’, a transfer process in which he could combine printed imagery with drawing and painting.

But, for all this invention, in the end, Souza may best be remembered for his compelling paintings of Christ and the power of his erotically charged nudes.

These were his subjects and the imagery of his most important works. Here the east, the west, the spiritual and the physical fuse together, giving credence to his often-used declaration that, the ‘whole meaning of life is life itself!.”

On its website, Grosvenor Gallery says, “Like other great artists of the 20th century, Souza was neither daunted by tradition nor disparaging of contemporary visual culture. Instead, he adopted various notions and visual references from such sources as the old masters, his contemporaries, and commercial imagery appropriating them to create his own distinct works. In no other case is it more appropriate for a new adjective; ‘Souzaesque’.”

Incidentally, Conor Macklin, Director of Grosvenor Gallery will be delivering a lecture later this month titled, ‘Souza: A brief intro into a revolutionary!’ at Sunaparanta Goa Centre for the Arts.

In fact, Sunaparanta will be commemorating Souza’s birth centenary when on April 12 it opens an exhibition ‘In/Of Goa: Souza at 100’, to celebrate the artist’s birth centenary. The exhibition will present a series of Souza’s drawings and paintings from a private collection, alongside works created by children, artists and educators commemorating the artist’s legacy.

These works have been created by students of various educational institutes, in a workshop series ‘After FN Souza’, coordinated by artist Viraj Naik, where students were to replicate the works done by Souza.

“Through a workshop process involving young minds, their parents and teachers, our aim was to create a community stimulated by what Souza represented, and what he encouraged us to see through his strokes,” says Viraj, explaining that he gave the students landscapes, faces painted by Souza, which the children found easy to replicate. “I didn’t put any pressure on them, but their teachers were very interested and they got these works done by them,” Viraj says.

“In this manner, the workshop triggered the imaginations of participants as they immersed themselves in a liberating, child-like exercise, encouraging them to see and perceive beyond the rigour prescribed by society,” says Viraj.

There is also another celebration happening and this will be an intimate, family affair, where Souza’s daughter Keren Souza-Kohn and grandson Solomon Souza will celebrate the day at a spontaneous evening of art, reflection and memory in their home village of Saligao.

Vivek Menezes, writer and art connoisseur, who is involved in this celebration says, “It is actually a journey of love. Solomon’s mother, who is Souza’s daughter, loves her father and her father loved Saligao. Even though she lives in Israel, she has a great feeling for Saligao, and they want to be in Saligao, very close to the house where he was born on this 100th birth anniversary. I am just helping them. This may be just a daughter and a grandson and a few others, no celebrities are involved, but what they are doing is sincere – a small event in Saligao, where they will show a short movie, talk about the man, some artists are going to speak and sing happy birthday.”

Artist Querozito D’Souza, describing Souza says, “His works speak of an intense and passionate celebration of life, with an unadorned pictorial imagery. His pivotal contribution to the art movement is not just pretty pictures but a personal interpretation of his boisterous mind. Alas! It is sad that his homeland Goa does not boast of its art and artists, and neither does it possess a part of an estate of his work for posterity.”

And, that, Goa not boasting of the art is what one finds difficult to accept on the birth centenary of the artist.

His daughter and grandson are in Goa to celebrate the day. Sunaparanta is commemorating Souza’s birth centenary, two years ago Museum of Goa had an exhibition on him titled ‘Posthumus Dialogue with Francis Newton Souza’, which was curated by Sabita Sacchi and supported by Raza Foundation.

It involved lectures on Souza by scholars and also a reading of letters between Souza, Hussain and Raza. But has Goa done enough to honour this great son of the soil?

The art community is definitely not happy with the little that is happening. “It’s quite disgraceful. Because we don’t know him, we do not realise how important he is. The record is going up and up, but the respect for him has not gone up at all,” says Vivek.

He adds, “So what is happening is that the artist’s birth centenary is not being celebrated by the state, is not being celebrated by the country and the only people who are celebrating it are somewhat dubious.”

Subodh too feels that Souza is not understood. “Goa has not done enough to perpetuate the memory of Souza for the simple reason that those who should do it, should also understand Souza. To understand Souza you need a little insight into art. Politicians will have problems with Souza’s naked women and will ask what is he drawing?” says Subodh.

Viraj too agrees that not much has been done to give Souza and other great Goan artists their due. “Many people in Goa do not know who is Souza. There are many Goan artists who went to Bombay during the British period and got recognised there. Souza is one, Gaitonde is another one. They have reached the peak of the art market through auction houses, and now a few are beginning to notice these artists,” says Viraj.

He suggests that the Goan artists be introduced to children in school and referring to the workshops he held, adds, “This is a small attempt by me on his centenary and I found that children were more receptive.”

Subodh, however, has a proposal that the road that leads from Souza’s house in Saligao to the Pilerne Industrial Estate be named after Souza. “The artists’ community in Goa is also supporting this,” he told GT Digital.

Souza achieved international recognition and was a leading figure in India’s avant-garde movement, shaping the modern art movement in India in the early years after Independence.

For a man who is known as one of India’s most important and influential modern painters of the 20th century, the enfant terrible of Indian art, the commemoration of the birth centenary does appear to be rather subdued, especially when the agreement in art circles is that the man definitely deserves more.