Oklahoma City

Details

FRANCIS NEWTON SOUZA (1924-2002)
Oklahoma City
signed and dated 'Souza 71' (upper left); further signed, titled, dated and inscribed 'F.N. SOUZA / OKLAHOMA CITY - 1971 / OIL ON CANVAS-BOARD / 24 x 30' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas board
23 7/8 x 28 ¾ in. (60.5 x 73 cm.)
Painted in 1971

Provenance

Bomhams, 17 October 2002, lot 655
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Special notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent. These lots have been imported from outside the EU for sale using a Temporary Import regime. Import VAT is payable (at 5%) on the Hammer price. VAT is also payable (at 20%) on the buyer’s Premium on a VAT inclusive basis. When a buyer of such a lot has registered an EU address but wishes to export the lot or complete the import into another EU country, he must advise Christie's immediately after the auction.

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Damian Vesey

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Lot Essay

Painted a few years after Francis Newton Souza moved from London to New York in 1967, the urban landscape depicted in the present lot is characterised by bright colours and heavy impasto. Also following the birth of his son, Souza's landscapes from this period illustrate the artist's joy and soaring sprits. As if in a ecstatic trance, Souza anoints the surface of this work with rich gems of pigment squeezed straight from the tube. The foliage and architectural structures are vivid and almost three-dimensional, and Souza has so much confidence in his gesture that he completely jettisons the use of the thick, black outlines that were so ubiquitous in his earlier work. Here, they are no longer needed to maintain order within the composition, which seems to be spilling uncontrollably out of the frame.

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