Souza at 100, his radical masterpieces timeless

Bold, courageous, rebellious — an endless flow of adjectives will swirl around art galleries across the world in seeking to explain the brilliance of India’s most radical painter, as the birth centenary of Francis Newton Souza is marked.

Souza was born in Saligao, Goa, at a time when it was a Portuguese colony. For a large part of his life, he faced scorn and was forced into seclusion. Though he achieved some success in his lifetime, his paintings began fetching astronomical prices only a few years after his death in 2002, at the age of 77. He died from complications following a heart attack in Mumbai.