Page 108 - Pundole's Auction M0015

54 not be considered smarter or more in control of things
than say, a rock.’ (ibid., p.?88) In this sense, his compositions
PROPERTY OF A BENGALI COLLECTOR of the mid 1970s become an artistic expression of that
same belief, and in many cases they appear to be
FRANCIS NEWTON SOUZA deconstructions of paintings created earlier in his career.
For instance, the current work might be considered a
1924?–?2002 deconstructed version of Seated Man in Red (After Titian),
as seen from the outlines and placement of the figure.
Untitled

Oil on board
1973
23½ × 18¾ in. (59.7 × 47.6 cm.)

Signed and dated ‘Souza 73’ lower right

??25,00,000?–?35,00,000

$ 37,315?–?52,240

One of the greatest strengths of Souza’s work is that he
remained tirelessly experimental. For most of the 1950s,
Souza was inspired to create his compositions from the
basic geometric elements of the square, circle and ellipse.
He was drawn to forms of empirical geometry, seeing them
as symbols of God’s creative power. ‘The analysis of these
forms is that they are geometric compounds of the square
and circle. And the one is really inseparable from the other.
Two such squares dissected by the circle produces an
ellipse. Parts and combinations of both can produce an
unending pattern in all directions. The two forms together
symbolise the linga-yoni capable of endless reproduction
and multiplication.’ (Reprinted in Francis Newton Souza,
exhibition catalogue, Saffronart and Grosvenor Gallery,
London, 2005, p.?48)

By the end of the 1950s, and certainly by the early 1960s,
these basic building blocks of his compositions start to
disappear, and are instead replaced by amoebic oval forms
that are cell-like in structure. The bold complex figurative
works of the 1950s created with thick crosshatching,
become further distorted in the 1960s, resulting in complex
mutated forms. The unnerving mutations that Souza
continued to create throughout the 1960s and 1970s may
express his desire to move beyond the figurative work of
Picasso, and equally may have been inspired by the very
real fear of nuclear holocaust; and yet these two factors do
not in themselves seem to fully explain the artist’s
continued experimentations in the extreme distortion of the
human form.

One alternative explanation is that by the 1970s Souza
called himself a Redmonite. He heralded its Theory of
Nature which suggested that ‘everything in the universe is
essentially made of the same particles, and governed by
the same uncontrollable forces, and as such man should

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