Panaji: Eight works by Francis Newton Souza are set to be auctioned at the upcoming AstaGuru Collectors Choice Auction on June 22 and 23. The 1994 oil on canvas piece is the highest-valued work in the exhibition, estimated at Rs 1.5–2.5 crore. It features a dramatic urban landscape with angular buildings, a tree, and an intense sky, combining architectural structure with emotional tension.
The Architecture of Memory
Titled ‘The Architecture of Memory: A Different View of FN Souza,’ the works—lots 6, 10, 14, 21, 25, 44, and 70—trace the evolution of Souza’s fascination with roads, houses, cityscapes, and built environments from the 1950s through the 1990s. Souza frequently drew upon visual recollections from his upbringing and childhood in Goa, transforming roads, churches, houses, and cityscapes into artistic environments.
“These works illuminate a critical yet often overlooked dimension of Souza’s practice, in which architecture functions not as topographical description but as a site of psychological projection and formal experimentation,” said Sunny Chandiramani, director of client relations at AstaGuru Auction House.
Key Artworks in the Auction
- Untitled (1996), acrylic on paper (estimated Rs 20–30 lakh): A vibrant landscape built from sweeping blues, greens, yellows, and black linear structures. The painting has a spontaneous energy typical of Souza’s late period, when he often reduced forms to expressive signs and architectural fragments.
- Untitled (1957), ink on paper (estimated Rs 5–7 lakh): A highly expressive drawing of trees or vegetation, created almost entirely through energetic line work.
- Dancers (1949), watercolour on paper: Depicts a stylised female dancer rendered in brilliant oranges, yellows, and greens with bold black outlines. It recalls folk, tribal, and modernist influences that shaped Souza’s early career.
- Untitled (1987), pencil on paper (estimated Rs 10–15 lakh): Another refined drawing showcasing Souza’s line work and imagination.
- Untitled (Still Life), 1992 (estimated Rs 30–40 lakh): A colourful arrangement of fruit and vessels executed with rich impasto and bold colour.
- Untitled (landscape), acrylic on paper, pasted on board (estimated Rs 16–20 lakh): A lively architectural landscape with energetic colours and simplified forms, a good example of Souza’s late experimentation with urban themes.
- Untitled (1996), acrylic on paper (estimated Rs 20–25 lakh): Another landscape on paper, but more atmospheric and expansive, with greater emphasis on sky and mood.
Significance of Souza’s Architectural Works
“Spanning several decades, they reveal the artist’s sustained engagement with the built environment as a means of negotiating questions of displacement, faith, and modernity. International auction results have increasingly affirmed the significance of this body of work, with architectural and landscape compositions consistently ranking among the most sought-after and highly valued examples of Souza’s oeuvre. The present lots offer a rare opportunity to reassess the artist’s architectural imagination as a vital component of his contribution to post-Independence Indian modernism,” Chandiramani said.
