Untitled (Still Life with Flowers)

In the early 1960s, Francis Newton Souza’s static painting style evolved to become more dynamic and gestural. Here, through the genre of still life painting, Souza articulates this fundamental shift in oeuvre. In stark contrast with the immovable monolithic vessels of Souza’s still life paintings of a few years earlier, Untitled (Still Life with Flowers) centers on an hourglass shaped vase that appears to crumple and dissolve within the space of the painting as if itself alive and an extension of the tentacle-like stems protruding from its body. The draughtsman’s black line is still present here, but appears more fluid and expressive, fighting to contain the composition and colors. Gesture and movement bring the flowers and fruit upon the table to life, as if they are bursting to break free of the canvas.

Souza's palette compliments this vitality and Untitled (Still Life with Flowers) becomes a celebration of vivid color heightened with whites, imbuing the composition with vibrancy and jubilation. The artist's palette can be compared to stained glass windows and perhaps the fruit on the table reference the tradition of vanitas (see lot 285). However, unlike so many of Souza’s still life paintings of the 1950s and early 1960s, Untitled (Still Life with Flowers) avoids any overtly religious connotations. Instead, this painting with its flowers in full bloom is a celebration of life, and ecstasy. Painted in 1964, the year of Souza’s first exhibition with Grosvenor Gallery in London, the present lot offers a striking contrast to the infamous series of 'black paintings' Souza would create the following year.