Image Maker

Artist Anjolie Ela Menon,close friend and confidante of Souza,despite being 16 years younger to him,says,“In Delhi,two people were dedicated collectors of Souza’s work,Ravi Jain of Dhoomimal Art Gallery and Ebrahim Alkazi. I knew Souza as a self-possessed iconoclast who critiqued the church and couldn’t care less about what other people thought. However,he also loved adulation and would have been happy about this exhibition.”

Choosing the 200 art works that are part of the exhibition,was no mean task. “I had to cull them from the 400 works collected by the Jains. We decided to call the exhibition “Volte Face” as a reference to the demonic heads Souza is known for,which expressed his apocalyptic vision of the world,” says Dalmia,who is credited with authoring one of the most comprehensive books on the life and times of Souza,The making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives in 2001.

Director of Dhoomimal,Uday Jain,recalls,“I was just three years old when Souza did a portrait of my parents in 1982 — he gifted it to my parents on Holi. Then in 1986,at the Kala Mela,Subodh Gupta,who was a student there,sketched Souza painting live. He gifted me another work which he had painted on the spot,though I never understood its significance then. It is now one of the most treasured artwork in our family collection.” The family portrait of the Jains is also part of the exhibition. 

Jain’s father,Ravi,first met Souza in New York in the 1950s. In 1966 he held a solo of the artist’s work at his New York gallery. “Unfortunately we do not have any surviving catalogue of that time but we had another significant show in 1976 at Dhoomimal,here in Delhi. Indira Gandhi also visited the show and although we sold only one work,Souza assured my father that the value of the collection would multiply,” recalls Jain. At present a quality canvas by Souza is priced between Rs 80 lakh to Rs 9 crore.

“You can only judge the endurance of a painter in public memory 10 years after he has passed on. In that sense Souza and SH Ara have endured the test of time — this despite the infamous brush with the fake works peddled by his own son,” says Menon.

Apart from the relatively unknown works,the exhibition will also feature some of the artist’s famed confrontational female nudes that became emblematic of uncovering the seamier side of life. There is the image of a mutilated face set against a shocking blue background,staring at the viewer,while another is a robust female nude that underlines the awe Souza felt for the full-bodied female form.