Contours of Identity

Francis Newton Souza and Avinash Chandra are two of the best-known Indian artists of the generation born between the two World Wars. But they had more than this in common, as this exhibition explores.

One area of common ground is their status as émigré artists based in London. A founding member of the Progressive Artists Group, Souza left India almost immediately afterwards, settling in London in 1949. Chandra, after a brief spell of teaching in Delhi, followed him in 1956. Both retained strong links with India, but it was in London that they first established their careers and formulated their distinctive artistic styles and sensibilities. This had the same advantages and disadvantages for both. London gave each the freedom to explore aspects of his persona—including his Indian identity—away from the constraints imposed by ‘home’. On the other hand, the London art world of their time—made up of gallerists, critics and audiences—imposed their own expectations on them, precisely with respect to their Indian identity. Both achieved phenomenal success in London in the early 1960s but still had to contend with assumptions concerning their origins. Chandra later recalled being asked by one gallerist why—given that he was Indian—he didn’t paint elephants and tigers. Like Souza, he constantly had to negotiate the expression of the Indian aspects of his personality, navigating between cliché and Orientalism.

Another area of common ground concerns the expression of their sexuality. In different ways —Souza perhaps more blatantly, Chandra more symbolically—both used their art to explore the potency of sexual desire. For some observers, this was another aspect of their Indianness, while for the artists themselves it was not a matter of race but just another route to examine their own inner consciousness. For us today, as we observe the similarities and differences between them, we find that each throws light on the other as well as revealing themselves.