NT BUZZ gets a sneak peek CHRISTINE MACHADO
Francis Newton Souza may be a recognised name, especially in the art circuit. But yet facts about the life of this noted late Goan artist may have remained obscured behind false tales. Until now.
In his latest book ‘Souza: The Artist, His loves and His Times’, a biography on late Souza, author Victor Rangel Ribeiro unravels some previously unknown truths about Souza’s life, tracing his journey from Goa, Bombay (Mumbai), London and New York, his marriages to Maria Figueiredo, Lisolotte de Kristian, Barbara Zinkant and his partner Srimati Lal. The book also dwells on the story of the personal friendship shared between Ribeiro and the artist, and the letters exchanged with contemporaries of that time.
Born just a year apart, Ribeiro and Souza both spent some of their childhood in Saligao in the same neighbourhood. They were in Bombay too at around the same time later. Yet, the two never met. It was only in 1967, when Ribeiro and his wife (Lea) migrated to New York that he was personally introduced to Souza and his then wife Barbara, by his cousin Luis Miranda, who later became a patron of the late artist.
“Souza was a warm and genial person to be with, and an excellent conversationalist; there was never a dull moment when Lea and I were with him and his second wife, Barbara Zinkant,” recalls Ribeiro. “He was an artist, true, but he was also widely read, and loved classical music as well, so our conversation ranged over all these areas. He was a man of many facets, and which particular facet he chose to display at any given moment depended on who he was with at the time.”
Speaking about Souza’s art, Ribeiro explains that for the lay person, Souza’s most approachable paintings are those that he executed in the mid-forties, from 1944 through 1948, “because he was feeling his way and they were so pictorial”. “His style grew bolder from then on, and was also more uninhibited; artists down the ages have revelled in painting the female nude, usually in modest poses; Souza on the other hand focused unabashedly on breasts and the genital area. Aside from this, he has numerous paintings that bear the stamp of greatness. The same can be said of his line drawings, of which he was justly proud,” he says.
However, after Souza passed away in March 2002 and obituaries began to appear in India as well as in UK and USA, Ribeiro discovered that they were riddled with inaccuracies.
“This bothered me, because Souza and my wife and I had been close friends until his passing,” he says, adding that he realised the need to do something about it when the same errors were picked up and repeated in later publications, without their ever being challenged by any member of the family.
The very first statement that caught his attention as being untrue, he says, was where Souza claimed that a bout of smallpox had almost put him in an infant’s grave.
According to Souza’s account, his mother disguised herself and smuggled him from Goa to Bombay. “He was born in 1924, so this must have happened either in 1924 or 1925, when he was truly an infant. Children that young cry a great deal when they are hungry or uncomfortable or ill; no matter how well the mother disguised herself, a child stricken with smallpox would have been impossible to smuggle from Goa to Bombay; other passengers would have complained; discovery would have led to instant arrest,” says Ribeiro.
The author states that he had also seen a photograph of Souza as a child seated next to his mother. “I found the print in an art auction catalogue, and it showed a four-year-old with a very smooth face, no pox marks anywhere,” says Ribeiro.
And thus began, eight years of meticulous research into the life of Souza as Ribeiro made three trips to London to meet Souza’s family members, one extended trip to New Delhi to meet Srimati Lal, and several to Goa and to Mumbai to check official and church records as well as newspaper archives. “Fortunately, in Goa I received invaluable help from the late Fr Nascimento Mascarenhas, who was a Souza enthusiast, and also from two young researchers,” says Ribeiro.
Souza’s friends in general were glad to cooperate, says Ribeiro. The manuscript of the resulting biography was vetted by three of Souza’s four daughters, and by the second of his two wives.
“All four were cooperative. I must say to their credit that they had only one concern in mind: that the account should be fair and accurate,” says Ribeiro.
But one member of the family objected right away. “‘How dare you write about my father?’ was the substance of his complaint. ‘He never talked to me about you!’ In reply, I pointed out that Souza had never talked to me about him, either. Dozens of other emails followed, some of them threatening, others claiming descent from Portuguese royalty,” reveals Ribeiro.
‘Souza: The Artist, His loves and His Times’ was released virtually in December 2020 via Sunaparanta-Goa Centre of the Arts, Altinho, by Padma Bhushan awardee, artist Laxman Pai.
“My collaboration with Dattaraj Salgaocar began as far back as 2002, when he first invited me to be the editor of a mammoth book on Goa that he was putting together, called ‘Goa—Aparanta, Land Beyond the End’. When some years ago he heard I was writing Souza’s biography, he offered to publish it, and I agreed,” says Ribeiro.
The release was preceded by an in-depth discussion on Souza’s life between Ribeiro and director, Grosvenor Gallery, London, Conor Macklin, who is a specialist on Souza and has organised exhibitions of his works in India in the past. During the conversation, Ribeiro also shared anecdotes about Souza’s claim that he was named after St Francis Xavier, his lie on the year he got married, and more.
And at 95, there is no slowing down for Ribeiro who is already hard at work on his next projects.
“I’m working on two major projects – my second novel, and my memoir. In between I write short stories and essays, as inspiration strikes me,” he shares.
