Francis Newton Souza

Francis Newton Souza (1924-2002) was born in Saligão in a Goan Catholic family, beginning his formal art education at the Sir J. J. School of Art. However, he was expelled in 1945, in view of pulling down the Union Jack flag during a function and participating in the Quit India

Movement. Throughout his life, Souza was known to be a rebel and a non-conformist. Souza is one of the radical modern artists, who was hellbound to break traditional barriers to innovate a new form of representation and exhibition. Today, Souza is one of the highest value fetching modern Indian artists!

In 1948, Souza's works of art were displayed in London's Burlington House as an integral part of an exhibition on Indian art. Following a few protests against him by the police from the Indian public for indecency, he migrated to London in 1949. His prosperity as an artist took off after the publication of his autobiographical work, Nirvana of a Maggot in Stephen Spender's Encounter magazine in 1955. Later, Spender had acquainted Souza with the art dealer Victor Musgrave. Souza's 1955 display at Musgrave's Gallery One sold out, prompting a series of notable international achievements. Souza was one of five artists on the UK waitlist for the 1958 Guggenheim International Award for his 1955 composition Birth. 

Souza was one of the first Indian painters to use acrylic paints in the 1960s. He was known for his thorough experimentations with pigments to achieve definitive results. Still lifes, landscapes, nudes and icons of Christianity were common subjects of his practice. His personal views resonate in the personal style of painting, with the bold application of colours and intuitively distorted human figures. His source of inspiration ranges from the folk art of Goa to the European renaissance period and landscapes from the 18th and 19th centuries. Many later generation artists like Manu Parekh, among others, show a replete influence from his works. Francis Newton Souza passed away at his Mumbai residence.