拍品專文
I have created a new kind of face [...] I have drawn physiognomy way beyond Picasso, in completely new terms [...] I am the only artist who has taken it a step further.
(Y. Dalmia, Souza in London, New Delhi, 2004, p. 10)
The slashes, slits, and lacerations that scar the male heads in all four Souza works are a product of the stylistic innovation during the artist's sojourn in postwar London. A devastated cityscape plagued by smog, food shortages, and widespread discontent provided Souza the stimuli to experiment and achieve a new degree of candor and dynamism as a draughtsman. The men he renders have been stripped of all worldly affectations; they appear bare and brutal, confronting the viewer with large eyes and a piercing gaze. The artistic dialogue with the European modernists is tangible as is Souza's signature cynicism, which inspires his depictions of the hypocrisy and malice of mankind.
(Y. Dalmia, Souza in London, New Delhi, 2004, p. 10)
The slashes, slits, and lacerations that scar the male heads in all four Souza works are a product of the stylistic innovation during the artist's sojourn in postwar London. A devastated cityscape plagued by smog, food shortages, and widespread discontent provided Souza the stimuli to experiment and achieve a new degree of candor and dynamism as a draughtsman. The men he renders have been stripped of all worldly affectations; they appear bare and brutal, confronting the viewer with large eyes and a piercing gaze. The artistic dialogue with the European modernists is tangible as is Souza's signature cynicism, which inspires his depictions of the hypocrisy and malice of mankind.