Untitled

In this work from 1958, Francis Newton Souza pairs contradictory elements to create a metaphysical landscape that succeeds both aesthetically and psychologically. Souza's cityscapes occasionally quote recognizable landmarks culled from his extensive travels, however this work veers towards the allegorical in its compositional choices. Juxtaposing a set of fanciful buildings complete with onion domes and flying pennants next to the strikingly modern cube and brick structures at the right, the artist uses architecture to illustrate the clash of a new urbanism on the fairy-tale scene. However, perhaps this very quality is what attracted the attention of its original owners. This painting once belonged to the renowned Modernist architects, Maxwell Fry (1899 - 1987) and Dame Jane Drew (1911 - 1996). They worked on numerous international projects pioneering the field of modern tropical building and town planning. In 1951, along with Le Corbusier, Fry and Drew were instrumental in the planning of Chandigarh in Punjab. While Le Corbusier designed many of the public buildings and spaces, Fry and Drew designed and oversaw the government housing projects in a number of sectors, along with Chandigarh's first cinema hall, swimming pool and general hospital.
The arrangement of the dark sky and heavy lines with the bright colors of the buildings are highly reminiscent of stained glass windows, an aspect of Souza's Catholic upbringing which often surfaced in his work. The bold use of outline and recurring brick motif also serves to unify the two architectural styles but does so while bestowing an uncanny and surreal quality to the piece. Suggestive of Giorgio DeChirico and his Pittura Metafisica style, Souza's painting employs the creation of a fictive space and subverted one-point perspective which characterizes this mode and gives this work a sense of eerie nostalgia.