Francis Newton Souza (1924 – 2002) was a master of decadence and primitivism, who often experimented with his mediums to come up with a unique end result. His big break as an artist came in the year 1955, with ‘Nirvana of a Maggot’ getting published in the Encounter magazine. He was also possibly the first Indian painter to use acrylic paint in as early as the 1960s. The Indian Modernist M.F. Husain paid a moving tribute to Souza posthumously in 2002.