Francis Newton Souza
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Francis Newton Souza (April 12, 1924 - March 28, 2002), commonly referred to as F.N. Souza, was an Indian artist. He was a founding member of the Bombay Progressive Artists' Group, and was the first post-independence Indian artist to achieve high recognition in the West.
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[edit] Early life and education
Born in village of Saligao, Goa to Catholic parents, he lost his father when he was three months old. He studied at the Sir J. J. School of Art, but was suspended in 1945 because of his support for the Quit India Movement.
[edit] Career
After this he founded the Bombay Progressive Artists' Group to encourage Indian artists to participate in the international avant-garde. However, in 1949, after India became independent, he left the country for London. The Institute of Contemporary Art included work of his in a 1954 exhibition, and other shows followed. His literary talents also helped his career after the publication of the autobiographical work Nirvana of a Maggot in Encounter, a journal then edited by Stephen Spender. His book Words and Lines published 1959 cemented his literary reputation.
Souza's career developed steadily, and he participated in several shows, receiving positive reviews from John Berger. His style was, as Berger pointed out,[1] deliberately eclectic: essentially Expressionist in character, but also drawing on the post-war Art Brut movement and elements of British Neo-romanticism.
After 1967 he settled in New York, but returned to India shortly before his death, Souza was laid to rest in Sewri cemetery in Mumbai, in a quiet funeral on March 30
A purported 1963 painting of Souza appeared on the BBC Antiques Road Show in Feb 2009.
[edit] Notes
[edit] External links
- Estate of F.N. Souza
- Francis Newton Souza --- paintings, drawings, and writings by F N Souza
- Biography of Souza
- Francis Newton Souza, National Gallery of Modern Art
- Remembering FN Souza
- Sale of a painting by the late Indian painter Francis Newton Souza has set a record for an Indian work of art
