On Monday, September 24, 2018, 1:54:52 a.m. CDT, V M <[email protected]> wrote: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/another-twist-in-f-n-souzas-tale/articleshow/65926381.cms Today, the rich and famous babble “Souza is my favourite artist”. But when the great modernist painter (whose ancestral roots are in Goa) died on a visit to Mumbai in 2002, his passing went virtually unacknowledged. At that time, the poet and critic Adil Jussawalla wrote with great ire about “the near-indifference to his death, the mealy-mouthed praise.” He recalled Souza’s own angry words about his childhood survival from smallpox, “Better had I died. Would have saved me a lot of trouble. I would not have had to bear an artist’s tormented soul, create art in a country that despises her artists and is ignorant of her heritage.” Jussawalla wrote, “It’s something I read with great bitterness now.”
------------------------------------------------------ VM,I was always under the impression that torment brought out the best in artists. Some tormented artists are able to express their feelings in ways that most of us cannot. Secondly, reading your article reminded me of a class in college where we touched on the age old problem of sponsoring philosophers. Some Kings wondered whether the value came from a philosopher who had to struggle for his living or from the sponsored philosopher who could concentrate on his profession and not have to be bothered about petty things like the rent and running a household. Mervyn
