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Lot Essay
Yuri Gagarin was a Russian cosmonaut who was not only decorated with the highest honor of "Hero of the Soviet Union" but became an internationally celebrated figure. As the first human to successfully man a shuttle into space and orbit the Earth, Gagarin represented man's supreme triumph as a species as they finally liberated themselves from the limitations of their home planet. The space race between the USSR and the USA was a matter of political pride. Gagarin's iconic Vostok 1 mission became a moment that overcame polarized differences and united them through hope and faith in science. This was Gagarin's only space mission, although he served as backup crew to the Soyuz 1 mission, which ultimately ended in a fatal crash. Gagarin went on to become deputy training director of the Cosmonaut Training Centre outside Moscow later named in tribute to him. Gagarin's life was tragically cut short as in 1968 when the MiG-15 training jet he was piloting crashed.
Souza executed this work the year the famed cosmonaut was killed. Painted only a year after Souza had immigrated to the United States the bastion of modern scientific enquiry, his execution and philosophy begin to realign in a new phase of his career. This painting anticipates a change in Souza's style and techniques in the new world.
Perpetually rigorous in debating cutting-edge intellectual, artistic and socio-political developments, Souza perfected his raw and highly idiosyncratic style in this painting. Harmonizing the tension between force and restraint, the composition is marked by vigorous, layered strokes which become virtual traces of imagined sensations.
Istarted using more than two eyes, numerous eyes and fingers on my paintings and drawings of human figures when I realised what it meant to have the superfluous and so not need the necessary. Why should I be sparse and parsimonious when not only this world, but worlds in space are open to me? I have everything to use at my disposal. (F.N. Souza, quoted in Notes, F N SOUZA, exhibition catalogue, Gallery One, London 1961, p. 1, originally from the artist's diary, 9 January, 1961)
Souza executed this work the year the famed cosmonaut was killed. Painted only a year after Souza had immigrated to the United States the bastion of modern scientific enquiry, his execution and philosophy begin to realign in a new phase of his career. This painting anticipates a change in Souza's style and techniques in the new world.
Perpetually rigorous in debating cutting-edge intellectual, artistic and socio-political developments, Souza perfected his raw and highly idiosyncratic style in this painting. Harmonizing the tension between force and restraint, the composition is marked by vigorous, layered strokes which become virtual traces of imagined sensations.
Istarted using more than two eyes, numerous eyes and fingers on my paintings and drawings of human figures when I realised what it meant to have the superfluous and so not need the necessary. Why should I be sparse and parsimonious when not only this world, but worlds in space are open to me? I have everything to use at my disposal. (F.N. Souza, quoted in Notes, F N SOUZA, exhibition catalogue, Gallery One, London 1961, p. 1, originally from the artist's diary, 9 January, 1961)