In the glittering landscape of Manhattan, among its celebrated galleries and towering skyscrapers, once stood a modest studio apartment where artist FN Souza spent the latter phase of his life in New York, from 1967 to a few years before his demise in Mumbai in 2002. A pioneering modernist and one of India’s best known artists, painted some of his most compelling works in the quintessential metropolis, experimenting with new techniques, including his celebrated chemical alterations, and also welcoming here a steady stream of collectors, writers and fellow artists who frequented him.“…This is your daddy speaking from New York. I am on top of the Empire State Building, which is the highest building in the world. It has 102 floors and is 1,250 feet high. Wish you were all up here with me. It is very bright and sunny, and New York is a fantastic and fabulous city full of life and fun. When you are all grown up, you can come to America and visit me. There are lots of supermarkets here with lots of goodies to eat and lots of toys and lots of too much of everything,” he wrote in a letter to his daughters Karen, Francesca and Anya, reproduced on the art platform Prinseps.Now, more than 20 years after his demise, the contents of that studio are set to go under the hammer at Saffronart’s Summer Auction on June 15-16. The lots include among others, his 67-inch high easel, estimated to fetch Rs 37,600-56,400 with two drawing boards. If a set of three palettes and smock is expected to fetch Rs 37,600-56,400, reference material — including vintage issues of National Geographic magazine and several posters — carry an estimate price of Rs 14,100- 23,500. His projector, designed to ‘develop large-scale compositions” carries an estimate of Rs 37,600-56,400. “I believe that archival material gives you an interesting snapshot into an artist’s life. How he created, worked and presented himself. It is like an old historical document reflecting the artists life,” states Dinesh Vazirani, CEO and co-founder of Saffronart. Speaking about his years in New York, art historian Yashodhara Dalmia adds, “He loved the city, its buzzing dynamic energy and street life.”Born on April 12, 1924, in the village of Saligao, Goa, the artist often described as the “enfant terrible” of Indian art was known to defy social and artistic conventions and breaking new ground. For years, he also held the position as the most expensive Indian artist, after his 1955 canvas Birth — with a pregnant reclining nude, the self in a priest’s tunic and the cityscape looking out from the window — set a record with $2.5 million in 2008. FN Souza’s work (FN Souza Studio)One of the founding members of the famed Progressive Artists’ Group, established in Mumbai in 1947 to discover a new artistic vocabulary for an Independent India, his diverse influences ranged from South Indian bronzes and temple sculptures of Mathura and Khajuraho to Spanish Romanesque paintings and European modernism. The landscapes that he had admired in his native Goa often took the form of lush horizons on his canvases, as did the visual culture of the Catholic church and stories of tortured saints narrated by his grandmother that surfaced as religious iconographies in his work. The distorted figures and grotesque heads were to remain an eternal part of his oeuvre across mediums and metaphors.Featuring a total of 130 works by leading modern and contemporary artists, the other highlights of the sale include Manjit Bawa’s Untitled (Radha), (estimate Rs 5-7 crore), Krishen Khanna’s Bandwallas at a Wedding (Rs 2.35 – 3.29 crore) and a Jagdish Swaminathan untitled work (estimate Rs 1.80-2.20 crore). The FN Souza artworks on sale include the 1957 oil St Sebastian (Rs 1.88-2.82 crore).Vandana Kalra is an art critic and Deputy Associate Editor with The Indian Express. She has spent more than two decades chronicling arts, culture and everyday life, with modern and contemporary art at the heart of her practice. With a sustained engagement in the arts and a deep understanding of India’s cultural ecosystem, she is regarded as a distinctive and authoritative voice in contemporary art journalism in India. Vandana Kalra's career has unfolded in step with the shifting contours of India’s cultural landscape, from the rise of the Indian art market to the growing prominence of global biennales and fairs. Closely tracking its ebbs and surges, she reports from studios, galleries, museums and exhibition spaces and has covered major Indian and international art fairs, museum exhibitions and biennales, including the Venice Biennale, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Documenta, Islamic Arts Biennale. She has also been invited to cover landmark moments in modern Indian art, including SH Raza’s exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the opening of the MF Husain Museum in Doha, reflecting her long engagement with the legacies of India’s modern masters. Alongside her writing, she applies a keen editorial sensibility, shaping and editing art and cultural coverage into informed, cohesive narratives. Through incisive features, interviews and critical reviews, she brings clarity to complex artistic conversations, foregrounding questions of process, patronage, craft, identity and cultural memory. The Global Art Circuit: She provides extensive coverage of major events like the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Serendipity Arts Festival, and high-profile international auctions. Artist Spotlights: She writes in-depth features on modern masters (like M.F. Husain) and contemporary performance artists (like Marina Abramović). Art and Labor: A recurring theme in her writing is how art reflects the lives of the marginalized, including migrants, farmers, and labourers. Recent Notable Articles (Late 2025) Her recent portfolio is dominated by the coverage of the 2025 art season in India: 1. Kochi-Muziris Biennale & Serendipity Arts Festival "At Serendipity Arts Festival, a 'Shark Tank' of sorts for art and crafts startups" (Dec 20, 2025): On how a new incubator is helping artisans pitch products to investors. "Artist Birender Yadav's work gives voice to the migrant self" (Dec 17, 2025): A profile of an artist whose decade-long practice focuses on brick kiln workers. "At Kochi-Muziris Biennale, a farmer’s son from Patiala uses his art to draw attention to Delhi’s polluted air" (Dec 16, 2025). "Kochi Biennale showstopper Marina Abramović, a pioneer in performance art" (Dec 7, 2025): An interview with the world-renowned artist on the power of reinvention. 2. M.F. Husain & Modernism "Inside the new MF Husain Museum in Qatar" (Nov 29, 2025): A three-part series on the opening of Lawh Wa Qalam in Doha, exploring how a 2008 sketch became the architectural core of the museum. "Doha opens Lawh Wa Qalam: Celebrating the modernist's global legacy" (Nov 29, 2025). 3. Art Market & Records "Frida Kahlo sets record for the most expensive work by a female artist" (Nov 21, 2025): On Kahlo's canvas The Dream (The Bed) selling for $54.7 million. "All you need to know about Klimt’s canvas that is now the most expensive modern artwork" (Nov 19, 2025). "What’s special about a $12.1 million gold toilet?" (Nov 19, 2025): A quirky look at a flushable 18-karat gold artwork. 4. Art Education & History "Art as play: How process-driven activities are changing the way children learn art in India" (Nov 23, 2025). "A glimpse of Goa's layered history at Serendipity Arts Festival" (Dec 9, 2025): Exploring historical landmarks as venues for contemporary art. Signature Beats Vandana is known for her investigative approach to the art economy, having recently written about "Who funds the Kochi-Muziris Biennale?" (Dec 11, 2025), detailing the role of "Platinum Benefactors." She also explores the spiritual and geometric aspects of art, as seen in her retrospective on artist Akkitham Narayanan and the history of the Cholamandal Artists' Village (Nov 22, 2025). ... Read More Tags:auctionFN Souza