Untitled (Still Life)

Lambasted as profane, the beleaguered Souza flouted convention throughout his life, redefining staid genres such as the still life. Painted in 1964, this work exemplifies Souza’s imaginative vision. Tendrils burst from an hourglass shaped vessel (common to the artist’s still life paintings), bearing ember-like bulbs of red and orange. Perspective is flattened, rendering the vase and its contents visible at multiple angles. The intense colouration and pronounced black outlines foreground the artist’s horror vacui, and refusal to acquiesce to silence and space. The earthy voluptuousness of the oils, contouring the tendrils and bulbs, belie the peacefulness of the genre depiction. The violence of the application gesture to the contradictions that define Souza’s oeuvre, his paradoxical faith in the violence of beauty, and the beauty of violence.