‘Picasso, Souza’ at Vadehra

Francis Newton Souza had a penchant for outrageous quotes. In 1987, in an article, he announced that he was the greatest artist in the world. He was the ‘Picasso of India’ (“Now that Picasso is dead, I am the greatest!”). It is in this context that the exhibition in New Delhi today, is a seminal one.

Close to 100 works sourced from London’s Grosvenor Gallery feature Pablo Picasso and F.N. Souza - founding members of the modern art movements in Europe and India, respectively - side by side. Picasso is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, known for co-founding the Cubist movement in the early 1900s.

At the time when Souza had started exhibiting his work in Europe, Edwin Mullins, the famous art critic, had observed that like Picasso, his (artistic) interventions had been thought outrageous because “the imagination that created them was discovering something about the visual world which no one as yet understood or which everyone had forgotten”.

Art writer Anindita Ghose of The Mint elaborates on the show: “It includes works by the two artists in a wide variety of media - drawings, oil paintings, etchings, linocuts and ceramics—that display their versatility and genius. It explores the exchange of ideas, intellectual movements, and artistic trends between Souza and Picasso, and ultimately between India and the rest of the world. The exhibition also has photos of the artists by various photographers. Nine years after Souza died, this is, in retrospect, a chance to understand it all….”

Interestingly, a column by art critic Uma Nair on the eve of the show contradicts its very basis to state: “Interestingly all sections of media have announced that Souza has been commonly referred to as the Picasso of India. Strangely when MF Husain died this year, there were many international press agencies that announced that Husain was India’s Picasso. Could India have two Picassos? In his lifetime Souza has said many things, he was a great writer and a thinker. But neither did Souza in all his lifetime ever proclaim to Pablo Picasso.”