Francis Newton Souza was born in 1924 in Saligao, Goa, then a Portuguese colony, into a strict Roman Catholic family. His early years were shaped by what he perceived as a profound contradiction between the sensuousness of Indian artistic traditions and the moral austerity of Catholic doctrine. This tension between what he described as ‘sin and sensuality’ became a defining force in his artistic practice. His paintings move between distorted, often grotesque figures and stark religious imagery, including anguished depictions of the Crucifixion, and sensuous nudes or tender portrayals of motherhood.

Souza is widely recognised as a founding member of the Progressive Artists’ Group, a collective that broke away from academic realism and forged a new visual language for modern India following Independence in 1947. Alongside artists such as S H Raza, M F Husain and Akbar Padamsee, Souza helped shape the trajectory of postIndependence Indian modernism. Yet his work ultimately resists easy categorisation.

In 1949, Souza moved to London, where he lived until 1967, also spending periods in Paris and Rome. During these years, he established a reputation within the European art world before emigrating to the United States and eventually settling in New York, where he lived until his death in 2002. Constantly experimenting with new ideas and techniques, he explored unconventional processes including the use of projected images, chemical solvents, acrylics and monochrome painting.

His practice drew on diverse influences, from the expressionism of Rouault and Soutine to the structural innovations of Cubism and the sculptural traditions of classical Indian art. Souza forged a fiercely individual style characterised by bold lines, distorted forms and psychological intensity. Beyond painting, Souza was also an accomplished writer, poet and thinker, whose essays and reflections reveal a deeply philosophical engagement with art, religion and society.