Home People Exhibitions Venues Images About

Francis Newton Souza

Born, 1924 in Goa, India. Died, 2002

From the catalogue Commonwealth Artists of Fame 1952 - 1977 (Commonwealth Art Gallery, London, 1 June - 3 July 1977):

“Souza was born in Goa, India, and studied first at the Sir J.J. School of Art, Bombay, and later in London at the Central School of Art and in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. In 1947 he was a founder-member of the Progressive Artists’ Group and a year later his work was included in the exhibition of Indian Art at Burlington House. In 1949 he settled in London and exhibited regularly on his own or in group exhibitions in London, Paris, New York and elsewhere. He now lives in New York. Retrospective exhibitions of his work have been held, the most recent in Detroit in 1969, and he has received numerous awards including a prize in the John Moores Liverpool exhibition (1957), a Guggenheim Painting Award (1958) and an Italian Government Scholarship (1960). His published writings have appeared in a number of international journals. Francis Souza has developed a personal imagery which can be religious, violent, erotic or satirical; his powerful canvases have made him one of India’s most famous artists.”

A particularly important monograph on the artist was simply titled Souza. Written by Edwin Mullins, a writer, journalist and film-maker who was formerly art critic of The Sunday Telegraph,the book was published by Anthony Blond Ltd., London, 1962. The book consisted of several texts on Francis Newton Souza written by Mullins. From the book’s Preamble: “An Indian painter, brought up in a strict Roman Catholic under Portuguese colonial rule, later a member of the Communist Party, and now living in London: these are the barest details abbout one of the most gifted and original of modern artists. Those writers on art who even today look upon all new painting as the result of age-old cultural roots, must be baffled by such a history, for it bears witness to a great number of contradictory influences which make nonsense of conventional ideas of tradition.”

In the Short Biography section, Mullins writes, “… In spite of the confusion of names, Souza is entirely Indian by blood. His ancestors were among the many thouands of Goans who took on Portuguese names when they adopted Christianity four hundred and more years ago. The name Newton came into the family because his father - also Newton - had an English godfather. The name Francis was added a little later by Souza’s mother, in thanksgiving to Goa’s patron saint, St. Francis Xavier, for having rescued her son from an attack of smallpox.”

Later on, the text states, “The period 1949-1955 was a hard time for Souza. For those six years he tried to interest London galleries in his pictures, only to be told that they were not good enough. Once he and a friend carried an enormous picture from North Kensington where he lived to Bond Street (the Underground would not take it), because a gallery had expressed a slight interest in his work; only to have it rejected, and then carry it all the way back to North Kensington.”

Francis Newton Souza’s work was included in the landmark exhibition The Other Story: Afro-Asian artists in post-war Britain, Hayward Gallery, London, 1989. A reproduction of his Crucifixion (1959) appeared in Mora Beauchamp-Byrd’s essay ‘London Bridge: Late Twentieth Century British Art and the Routes of ‘National Culture’ in the catalogue for Transforming the Crown.