Answer: New freedom challenging traditional notions of beauty and morality
For Souza, modern art stood for a new freedom that could challenge the traditional sense of beauty and morality.
The desire for freedom — political, as well as, artistic — soon spread widely among young artists, who witnessed Independence from the British Raj. In Bombay, another set of artists formed a group, called The Progressives in 1946. Francis Newton Souza was the outspoken leader of the group, which included M.F. Husain, K. H. Ara, S.A. Bakre, H.A. Gade and S.H. Raza. Souza wanted to question the conventions that had prevailed in art schools. For him, modern art stood for a new freedom that could challenge the traditional sense of beauty and morality. However, his experimental works were focused mainly on women, whom he painted as nudes, exaggerating their proportions and breaking the standard notions of beauty. |
