Janeita SIngh's book on FN Souza.... May 11, 2024 (Margao)

[Frederick FN Noronha]

Perhaps post-Independence India's most controversial painter, Francisco Victor Newton de Souza challenged the aesthetic and moral sensibilities of the art establishment prevalent during his time. His paintings disturbed conventional norms of propriety and troubled social comfort by its transgression of taboos, "bordering on the pornographic and the monstrous."

Janeita Singh's magisterial treatise on his work and life, titled 'FN Souza: The Archetypal Artist', is timely and epic in its research.  Janeita brings to focus his core ideology that the so-called 'obscenity' is in the eye of the beholder and not in the human body, which itself is a work of God and a divine art form.

For a wider discussion of her work, join us for a conversation with Janeita Singh, on Saturday, 11th May, at 5pm at The Dogears Bookshop. Janeita will be in conversation with Rinald D'Souza, who, apart from his current research, reads on South Asian art history, and recently co-edited a book on The Jesuits, Goa and the Arts (2023).