Grosvenor Vadehra is pleased to present PICASSO SOUZA, an exhibition where Pablo Picasso and FN Souza – founding members of the modern art movement in Europe and India respectively – will be featured side by side.

The exhibition includes almost a hundred works by the artists in a whole variety of media – drawings, oil paintings, etchings, linocuts and ceramics – that display their versatility and genius and explores the exchange of ideas, intellectual movements, and artistic trends that took place between Souza and Picasso, and ultimately between India and the rest of the world.

Edwin Mullins the famous art critic wrote:

'[Souza] with his finest paintings …the concentrated passion with which they were created may seem to burn over the canvas, yet the nature of the passion is less easy to place. They are full of apparent, contradictions: agony wit, pathos and satire,aggression and pity. Their impact is certain but few people are able to explain what has hit them. Like Picasso, too, his interventions have tended to be 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.’(Mullins, 1962, p. 37.)

“Now that Picasso is dead, I am the greatest!” (FN Souza, The Angry Old Man, Goa Today, March 1987)

Evidence of cultural and artistic exchange is apparent in the work of Souza, who was an integral part of the art scene in India and the rest of the world. He was a dominant force in the development of Indian modern art, inspiring the Progressive Artists’ Movement of India, leading the newly independent country into the world of modern art. Souza furthermore went on to become an inspirational figure in the London Art Scene of the 1950s. Similar to his counterpart, Picasso was at the centre of the major art movements of the 20th century. Picasso, along with Georges Braque, created Cubism in the early 1900s and later became associated with the Surrealist group. He is also the most sought after artist worldwide, for his paintings have sold for over $150 million. In addition to being present in most major museum and private collections in the world, there are three museums dedicated solely to his work.

“Souza is the Picasso of India” (Julian Hartnoll 1990, Hugo Weihe Christies, 2006).

Souza has been commonly referred to as the Picasso of India. One of the most sought after artists of India, Souza’s work has sold for over $1.5 million. His value is continuing to grow now that India is quickly becoming a stronger and wealthier country. Souza’s works are in several major museum collections including the NGMA in Delhi, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Tate, V&A, The British Museum etc, and so on.

“John Milton committed suicide because ‘Matisse and Picasso had done everything there’s to be done in art.’ Unfortunately he had not heard of me. Otherwise he might have been alive today.