Born in Goa in 1924, Francis Newton Souza was the founder of the Progressive Artist's Group in 1947. He left for London in 1949 where after an initial period of struggle his work began to have an impact. The Institute of Contemporary Arts included his work in a group exhibition in 1954 to be followed by a solo show at Gallery One in 1955. The publication of his autobiographical piece Nirvana of a Maggot in Encounter Magazine edited by the poet Stephen Spender also won him recognition.
A series of successful exhibitions soon followed. Apart from his paintings he proved to be very articulate and an ingenious writer as his book "Words and Lines" published in the UK in 1959 revealed. He was on his way to being recognized as an outstanding painter in London when he left for the United States settling in New York in 1967. Souza participated in the Commonwealth Artists of Fame exhibition in London in 1977 and has had several exhibitions including one man shows in Paris (1954 & 1960) and in Detroit (1968). Retrospectives were held in New Delhi and Mumbai in 1987 followed by an exhibition at the Indus Gallery in Karachi (1988).