In New York, it is impossible not to think of F N Souza, who arrived here from London in 1965 and exemplified the artist in a garret for most part, until his death in 2002. This was unusual, given his enviable success in Europe and notoriety in India. A prolific artist even by Pablo Picasso and M F Husain's standards, it was fittingly in New York that his most expensive painting was auctioned by Christie's in September for a price well over Rs 27 crore. Indeed, it would be difficult to imagine any auction of Indian modern art without Souza making up at least a few lots. And as his prices have risen, there is no doubting that his impact on the Indian art scene is beyond significant. It is for this reason that any collector - whether veteran or newbie - wants a slice of the Souza pie.
In that sense at least, collecting works by Souza for any Indian interested in art is the equivalent of collecting works by Jamini Roy for a Bengali. Just as no Bengali home can consider itself literate without a Jamini on its walls, Souza forms the foundation for any thinking Indian's foray into modern art. Fortunately for them, Souza was hardly delinquent when it came to being inexhaustible, and has thousands upon thousands of drawings and, from the later part of his career, chemical alterations to his credit. For those unfamiliar with the term, chemical alterations include those works by the artist from his penury years in New York when he would use a chemical to dissolve the print on glossy magazine pages or newspaper supplements, over which he would then paint mostly with marker pens and inks.
Given the renewed interest in his work, it is no mere happenstance that galleries are pulling out multiple works by the artist to put in the public way, with his drawings (and chemical alterations) at the bottom of that particular pyramid. On December 10, Saffronart Mumbai will auction 85 lots of his works in an evening sale - a rare honour given that these are mostly drawings - spread across the extent of his career. A Life in Line is interesting because we see elements that he used across his career, whether landscapes, still-lifes or his abundant nudes. By the time he had settled in New York, his interest in landscapes and still-lifes had begun to decline, and his interest in interior spaces and erotic paintings had grown proportionately. The interiority seems to reflect the inner demon in his paintings of lovers, a visual language that was now much more graphic than earlier. And in that respect at least, he was no more kinder to women than he was to men, most of whom he came to represent as lusty, leering, hypocritical beings.
It is these beings that form the bulk of his Works on Paper exhibit at 7 Gallery in Mumbai (till January 11) before moving to Ahmedabad's Kanoria Centre for Arts on January 22 (till February 7). While Mumbai is no stranger to Souza's works, it will be interesting to see how conservative Ahmedabad reacts to some of the more prurient drawings in the exhibition. With prices at Rs 2.5-3.5 lakh, the 7 Gallery/Kanoria drawings appear attractive for entrant collectors, but the curated quality of the Saffronart drawings (and a few Ida Kar silver gelatin limited edition prints) is better likely to engage emerging collectors with smaller budgets who want a piece of the artist, who once grandly stated, "Now that Souza is dead, I'm the greatest!" Who could argue with that?
Kishore Singh is a Delhi-based writer and art critic. These views are personal and do not reflect those of the organisation with which he is associated
