F.N Souza
Francis Newton Souza, born on the 12th of April 1924 in Saligao, Goa, was the founder member of the Progressive Artists Group who is largely responsible for shaping the Modern Art movement in India. He was brought up a strict Roman Catholic under Portuguese Colonial rule and later a member of the Communist Party. Inspite of the confusion of names, Souza was entirely Indian by blood. 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. She vowed not only that she would rename her son after the saint, but that she would do everything in her power to encourage him to become a Jesuit priest. He has written a lot about these early years in Words and Lines: “I was born in Goa in 1924. My grandfather and grandmother were both chronic drunkards.
Grandfather was a principal of a village school on Assolna, Salsette – a school his forefather had founded. My father, as a reaction to their bibulousness, never touched other liquid than water. He became a chronic teetotaler. On his wedding day the toast wine was poured over his head, since he would not drink it. But it is said that the progeny of bibulous progenitors are highly imaginative people. By atavism, it seems, the visions of a tipsy grandfather, pink elephants and the rest of the menagerie are transferred to the grandchildren, who see similar visions without being tipsy. You’ve only to see my paintings to know whether this is right or wrong.”
He initially struggled to make an impact as an artist in the UK. His Goan wife Maria (mother of his daughter Shelley) took on multiple jobs in order to support their family.[8] The Institute of Contemporary Arts included his work in a 1954 exhibition. Souza met a married Jewish stage actress named Liselotte de Kristian (neé Kohn) in 1954, and she became his mistress. They never married (Souza remained married to Maria, while Liselotte remained married to her husband Richard) in spite of having three illegitimate daughters (Keren, Francesca, Anya) together.
His success as an artist took off following the publication in 1955 of his autobiographical essay Nirvana of a Maggot in Stephen Spender’s Encounter magazine. Spender introduced Souza to the art dealer Victor Musgrave. Souza’s 1955 exhibit at Musgrave’s Gallery One sold out, leading to ongoing success. In 1959, Souza published his autobiographical Words and Lines.
Souza’s career developed steadily, and he participated in several shows, receiving positive reviews from John Berger. According to Berger, Souza’s style “was deliberately eclectic: essentially Expressionist in character”, but “also drawing on the post-war Art Brut movement and elements of British Neo-romanticism”.
Souza’s affair with Liselotte ended in 1961. He divorced his wife Maria in 1964 in order to marry his latest mistress, the 16-year-old Barbara Zinkant. He moved to New York City with his new wife in 1967. Their son Francis Patrick was born in 1971, but Souza’s wife Barbara then divorced him in 1977 to marry her own extra-marital lover.
Souza returned to India after his second divorce. Srimati Lal was his mistress from 1993 till his death. F. N. Souza died on 28 March 2002 from a heart attack and was buried in Sewri Christian Cemetery in Mumbai. Only a few persons attended the funeral, none of them family members or members of Souza’s Goan community.
- Birmingham Museum of Art, UK
- British Museum, London, UK
- Glenbarra Art Museum, Himeji, Hyōgo, Japan
- Haifa Museum, Israel
- National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, India
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
- Tate Gallery, London, UK
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
- The Hepworth Wakefield Art Gallery, UK
- Museum of Biblical Art (Dallas), Texas, USA
