Painting, 'Black Nude', by Francis Newton Souza, oil on canvas, London, 1961

This oil painting on canvas depicts a three quarter length study of a voluminous black female nude with large breasts and abdomen and a skull-like face, against a background of abstract patterns in different colours. The shape of her teeth echoes that of her beads and that of her eyes, grotesquely set in her forehead.

The painting is depicted in an essentially expressionistic manner, drawing on the post-war Art Brut, Cubist and Primitivist pictorial tropes. Souza’s major formative influences were Georges Rouault, Chaim Soutine, Picasso and the Indian sculptures of Mathura and Khajurao. In this painting we detect the influences of Roualt, e.g. the frontal, icon-like composition, the line-bound figure and the thick and porous application of layers of paint and that of Picasso, e.g. his use of primitivist idioms. Souza developed the theme of the female nude throughout his career.

A three quarter length study of a voluminous black female nude with large breasts and abdomen and a skull-like face, against a background of abstract patterns in different colours. The shape of her teeth echoes that of her beads and that of her eyes, grotesquely set in her forehead.

Given by the Contemporary Art Society, London.

Given by The Contemporary Art Society, Tate Gallery, London, 1983.RF: 83/222
Formerly in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Ivan Hitchens.
Reproduced in Souza, E. Mullins, London, 1962, p.18

Francis Newton Souza (1924-2002) was the founder of the Progressive Artists' Group (PAG). PAG was one of a number of left-wing groups that were active in the 1930-40s Indian cultural scene. In this context, theatre professionals, writers and visual artists united under the 'progressive' banner and loosely endorsed left-wing ideals to produce and circulate art together. PAG, founded in Mumbai in 1947, included artists Maqbool Fida Husain, Krishnaji Howlaji Ara, Syed Haider Raza, Hari Ambadas Gade and Sadanand Bakre. PAG members rejected the nationalist art propounded by the Bengal School and embraced the Surrealist, Expressionist, Primitivist and Cubist styles of the international avant-gardes.

Born in the village of Saligao, Goa, to Roman catholic parents, Souza was sent to the Bombay St. Xavier Jesuit High School in 1937. In 1939 he was expelled from the school and gave up the idea of becoming a priest. In 1940 he joined the British Sir J.J. School of Art and participated in left-wing political activities that aimed primarily at bringing British colonial rule to an end. Until his involvement with the ‘Quit India Movement’ Souza was regarded as the prize pupil of the school. However these political activities made him increasingly suspect in the eyes of the teachers who in 1945 expelled him.

In 1947 Souza became a member of the Communist Party and began painting according to the Party’s ideological requirements. His early pictorial agenda was broadly socialist realist and implied a severe moral and political critique. Among his early subjects we find the thickly-populated, poverty-stricken streets of Bombay, as well as the beastly-looking middle class individuals and the noble ill-treated poor. Later that year, Souza founded the Bombay Progressive Artists' Group, encouraging Indian artists to form and participate in the international avant-garde. In 1949 he fell out with the Communist Party, abandoned PAG and moved to London.

In London, Souza’s artistic career developed steadily, thus becoming a prominent figure in the post-war British art scene. He participated in several shows and received positive reviews, including that of the critic John Berger (1955). In 1956, Harold Kovner, a wealthy American collector, noticed Souza’s work in Paris and became his main and life-long patron. Having ended his commitment to Social Realism, Souza developed a style that was, as Berger pointed out, deliberately eclectic: essentially Expressionist in character, but also drawing on the post-war Art Brut movement, Cubism and British Neo-romanticism.

Souza’s major formative influences were Georges Rouault, Chaim Soutine, Picasso and the Indian sculptures of Mathura and Khajurao. From Roualt, Souza borrowed the frontal, icon-like compositions, the line-bound figures as well as the thick and porous application of layers of paint; from Picasso, the use of Primitivist idioms and from Indian sculptures, the erotic, highly plastic and organic figure-handling. His subjects included Christ, iconic saints, Church functionaries, female nudes and a wide selection of social tropes.

In 1957 he was awarded a prize in the Junior Section of the John Moores Liverpool exhibition and in 1958 he was selected to represent Great Britain at the Guggenheim International Award. In 1959 his work was exhibited in the US, Germany and Sweden.
In 1982, Souza’s work was included in India: Myth & Reality, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, and in 1989, in The Other Story at Hayward Gallery, London. In 1993 the Tate gallery acquired Souza’s Crucifixion (1959). In 2005 the same institution exhibited Souza’s work alongside the expressionist and raw work entitled Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion (1944) by British artists Francis Bacon, whom shortly after WWII had depicted religious subject matter in a similarly brutal style. After 1967 Souza settled in New York, but returned to India shortly before his death.

This is a three quarter length study of a voluminous black female nude with large breasts and abdomen and a skull-like face, against a background of abstract patters in different colours. The shape of her teeth echoes that of her beads and that of her eyes, grotesquely set in her forehead. The painting is depicted in an essentially expressionistic manner, drawsing on the post-war Art Brut, Cubist and Primitivist pictorial tropes. The artist's major formative influences were Georges Rouault, Chaim Soutine, Picasso and the Indian sculptures of Mathura and Khajurao. In this painting we detect the influences of Roualt, e.g. the frontal, icon-like composition, the line-bound figure and the thick and porous application of layers of paint. We also see the influence of Picasso in his use of primitivist idioms. Souza developed the theme of the female nude throughout his career.

Francis Newton Souza (1924-2002) was born in Goa to Roman Catholic parents. Having been expelled from school in 1939 he gave up the idea of becoming a priest and joined the British Sir J.J. School of Art. Souza was the founder of the Progressive Artists' Group (PAG). PAG, set up in 1947, was one of a number of left-wing groups that were active in the 1930-40s Indian cultural scene. The group embraced the Surrealist, Expressionist, Primitivist and Cubist styles of the international avant-garde art movements.

IS.11-1983