There are artists who create, and there are artists who simply are. FN Souza belongs to the latter category. The self-proclaimed enfant terrible of Indian modern art pushed boundaries of style and sensibility through his works, such that even as late as 2022, the Central Board of Excise and Customs seized his work, Lovers, claiming obscenity. It was the Bombay High Court that stepped in to release it earlier this week. “Souza would have had a laugh. During a tour in the 1960s, a local sheriff in Darlington, UK, did something similar. Souza being Souza, laughed away. He enjoyed being notorious,” shares Giles Tillotson, senior vice president, exhibitions, DAG and curator of the show. 

On the artist’s centenary, the gallery will bring together his works with another of his radical contemporaries, Avinash Chandra, in a rare exhibition titled Contours of Identity on November 12. The exhibition will be part of Art Nights Tuesday’s extended hours’ itinerary.