April 12 marks the birthday of two important Indian modernists – F N Souza and Akbar Padamsee. Coming from extremely different backgrounds, their careers were forged with different experiences and inspirations. However, there is one important element that was common in the art practices of both Souza and Padamsee – the imagery of the human head and faces. Extremely distinct in their appearance, style, and execution, their works on this common theme are from important parts of their oeuvre and are brilliant examples of the individuality of both artists.

An iconoclast who was known to challenge conventions through his art, F N Souza executed the imagery of human heads that were far from being simplistic. A theme that continued to appear throughout his career, Souza’s head paintings were highly distorted. Although they may come as raw and visceral, the artist executed these works with extreme intricateness. Offering his take on the society and people around him, these works were unsettling due to the contorted facial features.

An eccentric throughout his life, Souza had once offered an amusing take on why his protagonists were executed with such unique heads and faces. The artist quipped that “Renaissance painters painted men and women making them look like angels. I paint for angels, to show them what men and women really look like.”

Akbar Padamsee on the other hand was fascinated with human heads and faces from early childhood. "I recall making my first 'head' when I was just a four-year-old. Eyes are the most important for me- they create a 'look'," said the artist in an interview. However, since the 1950s numerous faces in various moods became a primary muse for his canvases.

Often delineated in monochromatic, Padamsee’s heads or human faces were conceived to depict an isolated figure that exuberated a sense of sadness. While he continued to make faces throughout his career, a shift in style was marked when he returned to the practice in the 1980s. Moving on from the earlier reticent human faces, he started to execute them in a more sensuous and palpable way.

The minimalist approach rendered them a sense of gravitas. Talking about his process, the artist said “As in God’s unique creation no two faces are alike, in my creative endeavour, I go for the face that stands apart in a crowd. Faces portray the character of a person, this is what differentiates one from other.” Painted with mathematical precision, Padamsee’s heads and faces were meditative images that dwelled on the question of human duality.