Untitled (Landscape)

Souza traveled extensively in the seventies. Boarding a Greyhound bus, Souza traversed the country's interstate routes and highways absorbing a kaleidoscopic vision of the American landscape as it streamed by his bus window. The image, rather than being defined by the formalism of black lines, is entirely subsumed by bright colors and heavy impasto brushwork. Painted during a time when Souza discovered the writings of the Bhagavad Gita, this painting is a direct reflection of his uncontrollable painterly passion, and overarching sense of spirit and joy. In a trance of complete painterly ecstasy, jabbing and jiving within the moment of painterly delight, Souza anoints the surface of the painting with rich gems of color squeezed straight from the tube. This painting was made from a personal memory, plucked from a particular time and space. Souza's grip tightened around the paint tube and the result was what he himself described as "'Creative Joy' despite a world filled with tragedy, wars, suffering, and death." (F.N. Souza, Diary, 31 May 1971)