The Wedding Moment

About Artist

Wilson Souza’s romance with feminine themes has become his trademark narrative style. It is characterized by semi abstract strokes of bold colours, rendering it with amalgam of fantasy and reality. There is wealth of sensuality of female form a tad exaggerated without defying the tenets of aesthetics. The grandiosity of the feminine beauty and the de facto caparisons to equate beauty and woman seems to have worked magic on the canvas. The semi nude figures stand as a metapour for truth as it is devoid of superfluities. By rendering richness of form the artist seems to have camouflaged the reality and takes to different realm of truth. The visual representation of form often makes one to fantasize to a certain extent and satiates the need to search for perfect form. The artist states this matter of truth from the rooftop. At the flipside is also the truth that beauty is essentially ephemeral in nature, is stated as all the female forms are in the age of exuberance. His comparisons to woman and nature may at the outset look ordinary or an overt subscription of feminist ideology but they do make bold statement of woman playing her role as transmitter of life from one generation to the next. Figures with blank faces direct the viewer to imagine himself. Use of female form as metaphour for nature’s bounty comes frequently in his works. With use of bold and fairly balanced oil colours in large canvasses, he displays his prolific way of painting. The role of being nurturer to life is amply acknowledged as if paintings are a thanks-giving ritual. There is wee bit autobiographical aspect that does not escape the attention. The figures defy the horror of reality and present a picture of celebration and festivity, a fact necessary in the present day world. Female attributes such as mother, wife and her universal role being a caretaker of life seems to have been celebrated vastly in his work. The grandiose, graceful, energetic and charming female figures absorb a generous rhythmic sensuality. They narrate the tales of motherhood, routine engagements in domestic chores and everydayness of life. The central image in his canvasses interrogates the viewer and the subordinate images lend an appropriate balancing touch. A great believer in practice and rigour, both of which he admits, gives great strength on the canvas, like everything else in life. Adept at big and small canvasses, he continuously engages with canvas on a daily basis. His figures display a contemporary outlook and metaphoric possibilities in ample measure. Surrounded by patriarchal supremacy and rightwing censorship, Wilson Souza has thrown an enquiry at the contemporary society through his thought of feminist leaning. The centrality of exploration revolves round moments of life, its absurdity and its paradoxes. The canvas Migration against the dull blue sky focuses on reality of everyday life particularly among the poor. The truth, pain, poverty and celebration make a mark on Wilson’s body of work. Departing from the normal course the artist has also created canvas on Last Supper, a theme often explored by many Indian artists in their own style. Seeking further to create a dialogue between the viewer and the artwork he presents works with woman’s perspective. The paintings though serve the purpose of the aesthetic admiration they raise a query on social and political landscape and incite a change towards equality. Here it is not the woman artist with feminist ideology but a male artist with case for equality of gender. At once the painting’s query is directed towards the misogynist orientation of our social fabric and artist successfully comes out completing the task of being the catalyst for change.