THE Souza Evolution

In a fascinating story that spans multiple generations and continents, as well as reflects universal human themes of migration, dislocation and identity, Vivek Menezes traces the ascension of muralist, graffiti artist and painter Solomon Souza, the Jerusalem-based grandson of the great modernist legend FN Souza

- Vivek Menezes

In the middle of May, earlier this year, an important moment in Indian art history played out in the unlikely location of Safed, perched high in the mountains of Galilee in Israel.

The young Goan-British-Israeli artist Solomon Souza recalls it as “an end-of-the-world, last supply-run type of thing” because lockdown had been temporarily lifted, while the Covid-19 pandemic continued to rage throughout the region. He was taking the opportunity to say goodbye to his mother before moving to Jerusalem and to “a perfect studio set-up”. Even while he was getting into his car to leave, Keren Souza-Kohn came to him “with a large roll of canvas in her arms. I could see it was old, dog-eared and browning.”

That dusty bundle turned out to be an extremely consequential gift from the past, directly from the hands of the great, pioneering modernist painter (and founder of the seminal Progressive Artists Group of the 1940s) Francis Newton Souza.

Solomon says, “It had belonged to my grandfather, and must have been the last roll he ever bought. My mother had procured it after helping to clean out his apartment in New York soon after his death in India in 2002, and she’d been holding onto it for almost 20 years. Now it was being passed on to the next generation, and I felt its powerful potential the moment it touched my hands. I knew his canvas could only be used to pay homage to my grandfather.”