Unknown Artist
28 x 23 cm; 11 x 9 in
F.N. Souza invented a type of work on paper that he called chemicals. These are rendered images on pre-printed surfaces altered with a special chemical solution, paints, coloured pencils and ink markers to create, or in Souza?s language, ?transcreate,? an altered image and thus an altered perception of what constitutes art. The chemicals, or chemical alterations as he called them in later years, are Souza?s world and his unique contribution to the world of art, just as one could say Picasso?s was cubism and its variations thereafter; or with Matisse it was his paper cut outs. If that sounds like a stretch, in Souza?s world of image making it is not: the chemical alters the viewer?s perception of the figure or the landscape by going beyond everyday image makers like pencils and paints to industrialize art in much the same way commercial advertising has industrialized our perception of consumer goods over the past thirty years.