Francis Newton Souza, Abstracted Head (1969)

This week’s Friday Find is a work from 1969 by Francis Newton Souza. One of the most important modernist artists from India and a founder member of the Bombay Progressive Artists’ Group. I feel like we all know who Souza is at this stage, so no need for a long biography…

 

This work on paper was painted in 1969, two years after he moved from London to New York and was formerly in the collection of Barbara Zinkant, whom Souza married in 1967 prior to leaving the UK.  Abstracted heads are a common theme in his work, and this line drawing is embellished with expressive sweeps of black ink across the ‘face’ of the figure, with green and pink flashes around the top.

Prior to leaving for the US, he was represented by Grosvenor Gallery, and during that time held seminal exhibitions including The Human and Divine Predicament and Black Art and Other Paintings. Other than his ‘black on black’ paintings, the mid-60s also saw his experimental ‘Kalam’ series, or the Gandara Gouaches as he titled them in the listing for the Detroit Arts Gallery show in 1968.

The last few years have seen several exhibitions of his work, including those marking the centenary of his birth.  In summer 2024 we held a show at Burgh House in Hampstead, exploring the ‘nuclear’ theme in his work.  We exhibited several important paintings for the exhibition, including ‘Mad Prophet in New York; Oedipus Rex; Young Ladies of Belsize Park, and The Apocalypse, which also featured a lecture by Dr Elena Crippa.

In January 2025 we also held a show of work at Bikaner House in New Delhi, which included The Famly (1947); Mr Sabastian (1955); Birth (1955); The Buther (1962), and was again accompanied by a series of talks and lectures.

 

Finally, in June 2025 we led a field trip to Aldeburgh to see an exhibition of works in the collection of the Britten Pears Foundation at Snape Maltings, and at their home ‘The Red House’.  There was also a surprise in that they also had an early painting by Krishen Khanna in their collection, hanging in their living room, most likely bought from Leicester Galleries in the 1960s. 

Francis Newton Souza (1924-2002)

Abstracted Head, 1969

Signed and dated 'Souza 69' upper right

Ink on paper

43.2 x 35.6 cm
17 x 14 in

Provenance

The Estate of the Artist;
Barbra Zinkant, USA;

Grosvenor Gallery, London

We also have several works by Souza on display at the gallery in our current exhibition looking at the South Asian artists that participated in the seminal 1989 exhibition The Other Story. 

Charles Moore