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Lot Essay
Souza and Goel belonged to a remarkable circle of intellectuals and artists; the latter including M. F. Husain, Vasudeo Gaitonde, Krishen Khanna and Syed Haider Raza. Souza and Goel were particularly close friends and even when separated by continents, the two men corresponded regularly. Souza, bubbling with ideas, used Goel as a sounding board for his views on art and current affairs. He particularly appreciated Goel's insights, even when they did not agree. Goel was unswerving in the honesty of his criticism, never allowing friendship to cloud his judgement.
From Goel's many reviews of Souza's exhibitions:
'Souza is famous for his inflamatory treatment of heads. The iconography is morbidly personal, the distortion grotesque to the point of a neurotic edge; the image proper shows mannerism played to the dark labyrinth of the psyche'. Times of India, August 1990.
Later in the same year Goel wrote:
'Souza's chemicals are ironic reminders that an image is not a sacred object, but belongs to a space of language. When these pictures of objects, taken from glossy art magazines, are defaced and chemically altered, they achieve a new emotional and personal content. Their closeness to print culture demands that they are a self-apparent play of graffiti space. They also speak of how the artist's whimsies have windows through which we enjoy looking [...].'
From Goel's many reviews of Souza's exhibitions:
'Souza is famous for his inflamatory treatment of heads. The iconography is morbidly personal, the distortion grotesque to the point of a neurotic edge; the image proper shows mannerism played to the dark labyrinth of the psyche'. Times of India, August 1990.
Later in the same year Goel wrote:
'Souza's chemicals are ironic reminders that an image is not a sacred object, but belongs to a space of language. When these pictures of objects, taken from glossy art magazines, are defaced and chemically altered, they achieve a new emotional and personal content. Their closeness to print culture demands that they are a self-apparent play of graffiti space. They also speak of how the artist's whimsies have windows through which we enjoy looking [...].'