"You have given my father back to me!"

GALF Gleanings!

Chuffed to bits!

The most wonderful appraisal of my presentation on

FN Souza at GALF, from writers, artists, filmmakers, and gallerists!

Keren Souza, Souza's daughter, a British artist in her own right said, "You have given my father back to me!"

'Critic as an Artist' - My 5 yr old research project on FN Souza's art practice, births new dialogue around his highly controversial figurative art legacy, the study of human sexual life and relationships.

While Keren Souza, Sonia Rodrigues Sabarwal, Arjun Menezes designed the display "Portrait of the Young Artist"

Shaistha Thapar set up the art gallery - a viewing of masterpieces of FN Souza at the event.

Graphic Design - Apoorva Raina

FN Souza at Goa Art /Lit Festival 2019

Getting ready for my presentation on FN Souza at Goa Art /Lit Festival  

Display of FN Souza paintings at GALF morphed into graphic design (painting + photograph), a mosaic meticulously designed (by

Apoorva Raina

) within a 1941 black and white photograph of the young artist :

Portrait of the Young Artist 1941 (17 yr old Francis Newton)

I essentially like this photograph because of the rebellious stance and the fiery look in his eyes. A 'Rebel Prodigy' who created pathbreaking work at a young age, carving the modern woman on his canvas. His resurrection of the new woman was a twined Cleopatra, Lysistrata, Rati, Shakti & Kali!

Keren Souza, Sonia Rodriques Sabharwal teamed up with me to decorate & mount the poster, finely titled by Arjun Menezes.

 

 GALF Gleanings!

X edition of Goa art lit fest!

In conversation with New Zealand-based novelist Rajorshi Chakraborty, who cautions us that if we do not 'seize the day'....' Or The Day Will Seize Us', the title of his first novel. Other books come with more intriguing titles:

'Balloonists' (which reminded me about Krishen Khanna's Bandwallahs)

'Derangement'

The novel in the discussion was the to-be-released:

'Shakti'

The age of Right-wing politics and their subversive agendas set as a mystery thriller with 3 strong women protagonists.

Interesting and enriching interlude. Raj is as good an orator/writer as he is a listener. The exchange of ideas was scintillating, the beginning of a new art/ literary friendship!

FN Souza Art Presentation & Display

 

"A Look at FN Souza as a Young Artist"

by Jugneeta Sudan

Goa Art Lit Fest

06 Dec 6:15pm

Mandovi Hall

Souza in The 40s

When the exhibition ‘Souza in The 40s’ arrived at Sunaparanta Gallery, Goa (Dec 2019), my research on the artist had been underway for a couple of years. The exhibition, a mega event curated by Conor Macklin was held simultaneously at two other venues, Saffronart Delhi and Grosvenor Gallery London. It showcased FN Souza in the first decade of his artistic career (1940-1949), up to when he packed his bags to go to London.

I went to see the exhibition with a clear context, wanting to see the mind of an exceptionally brilliant young Souza from when he was just 16 years old to when he turned 26. And what I saw in the exhibition validated my research, as well sent me on new pathways to decipher Souza’s vision as a young artist.

Undoubtedly, with his first strokes on the canvas, Souza at sixteen had set out to study nature in its vast magnificence. Besides natural surroundings, his endeavor to comprehend nature through the human body showcased an exceptional quality, a fascination which moored him for life, that mastery of haptic quality of drawing dissecting the nature of human form. But what was utterly riveting was the truly remarkable, in a definite class of its own, the avant-garde portrayal of women by a boy artist just 16, 17 ....18 years of age. 

His nudes in the gallery sketched with admirable adroitness made me stop short. Women erotic and sensual, echoing the susurrations of symbolists yet in complete command of their bodies ; utterly unselfconscious voluptuous women laughing singing and running on the beach in swimwear, or at their toilet beside a flowing stream, with one of them playfully kicking a stone on the river bank. These were magnificent human beings, absolutely natural and earthy as if he had conspired with nature to bring together beauty and mystery in harmony with the universal laws governing life and matter. In a cultural context of two millennia human civilization, these completely as ease women in these artworks in the 40s’ executed by a young mind are no doubt outstanding. 

FN Souza : Art India

My piece on FN Souza's Figurative Art in Art India, Jan 2019
                                         
                                       The Female Nude: Picture of Self-Possession 

........‘the return to tradition’ in post-independence period re-establishes forms and conventions colonialism had disrupted and that this restoration (or should be), the most significant event in modern Indian art both in itself and as the instrument of cultural decolonization. The aforementioned move is best exemplified by the rebirth of Female Nude in FN Souza's art. Drawing from global art practice beginning with prehistoric art, he carved her 'Bold & Beautiful', and this representation lies coded a social revolution for contemporary human society.  

  That Souza’s art contains various possibilities of redemption is yet to be understood. If society is to become free, the answer lies with liberated men and women, the ultimate egoists. Contrary to her jaded erotic image, in Souza’s work, this nude is not exposed and vulnerable, but assertive and powerful. She is emphatically nude, not naked. Beneath the compelling line of Souza’s female forms lies his artistic vision that needs to be fully comprehended. 

FN Souza : Joao Roque Literary Journal

Joao Roque Literary Journal

FN Souza : Rethinking Representation 


https://www.joaoroqueliteraryjournal.com/nonfiction-1/2019/2/4/f-n-souza-rethinking-representation


Souza Painted Hell: A review of his art legacy 


https://www.joaoroqueliteraryjournal.com/nonfiction-1/2017/7/26/souza-painted-hell-a-review-of-his-legacy