Francis Newton Souza (1924-2002)

The Last Supper in the Red City (FNS-17) signed and dated 'Souza 1985' (upper left) chemical alteration, acrylic and marker on magazine paper over two sheets 50 x 40cm, Gifted by Souza to his close friend, the art critic, K.B. Goel (1930 - 2018) The property of Dr. Premlata Goel, widow of the distinguished art critic, K.B. Goel, Better known as F.N. Souza, Francis Newton Souza was born in Goa in 1924 and would later become one of the foremost figures in modern Indian art. Souza’s early life was marked by the same rebellious spirit that would later characterise his mature work. After moving to Bombay, Souza was enrolled at St Xavier’s School, where he nurtured an interest in drawing and began studying oleographs, prints and pictures imported from Europe. However, a defiant youth, at fifteen, Souza was expelled from the school for, amongst other misdemeanours, drawing pornographic images in the lavatories. Later, he was also suspended from the Sir J.J. School of Art for joining Gandhi’s Quit India movement. He chose not to return, instead pursuing his own path as an artist. Raised in Roman Catholic Goa (then a Portuguese colony), the visual world of the Church made a deep impression on Souza from an early age. Its churches and imposing architecture, the vestments of its priests and the objects used in religious worship all became part of his visual vocabulary. Although Souza would later reject the faith itself, Catholic imagery remained central to his work, often reappearing in his distinctive depictions of priests, saints and distorted human heads. This mixture of familiarity and rejection gives many of his religious images their particular tension. In 1947, Souza became a founding member of the Progressive Artists’ Group, alongside M.F. Husain, S.H. Raza, K.H. Ara and others. The group rejected the conservative traditions of pre-independence Indian art, bringing together European modernism and Indian visual culture. After moving to England in 1949, Souza travelled through Rome, Amsterdam and elsewhere in Europe, absorbing the fractured architecture and changing visual culture of the post-war city. At the heart of this wider intellectual circle was his friendship with the critic K.B. Goel. The two men remained close for decades, corresponding regularly despite the distance between them. Souza valued Goel as a sounding board for his ideas about art and current affairs, while Goel appreciated his willingness to engage with criticism. He never let friendship keep him from challenging Souza. Goel’s writing gives a vivid sense of this relationship. Reviewing Souza in 1990, he described his heads as reaching towards “the dark labyrinth of the psyche”, while elsewhere he explored the artist’s fascination with print culture and the transformation of familiar images into something more personal and unsettling. Please register to request a condition report

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