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| Sunday, 8 June 2003 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Art should have mass appeal - Senaka Senanayake by Jayanthi Liyanage
His is a name which sparks admiring memories in all Sri Lankans who can trace back his meteoric rise into the world of art as a child prodigy, aged seven. Scanning 45 years since then, devoted to painting, delving into varied stages of art and transcending the entire gamut of realism and abstract, artist Senaka Senanayake philosophises thus: "Whatever the various art movements that have evolved in the world, from cutting edge art to unusual bizarre work, what lasts at the end of the day is what the average public can respond to. A lot of new unusual art done today is admired and respected only by the art critics and connoisseurs and does not filter down to the masses." His summing-up: "If anything is ever going to live forever, it needs to be appreciated by the masses," fits his current theme of painting, interwoven in the work he exhibited in Seoul, Korea, recently, as the first Sri Lankan to do so, and will recur in the exhibition he plans to have in Bombay by December. For Senanayake now wields his canvas as his "reaction to the crisis" of problems, tensions, war and suffering which is seen in the country and around the contemporary world. "Life is not all about death and violence. We live for the few moments of happiness we can get and the positive aspects of life," he says. "It may be make-believe, or fantasy, but that is what you live for. And that happiness is what I portray in my work, which the average public can respond to and enjoy."
While anticipating more exhibitions in Korea and Czechoslovakia, he does not have immediate plans of delighting local art fans with depictions of birds, animals, humans, flowers and foliage, as he is wont to, due to a personal calendar full of international happenings for the coming two years.
"The time has now arrived for artists to concentrate on their own regions," he prophesies. ############ Vienna Boys Choir undeterred by SARS Sri Lanka is the only country in Asia where the Vienna Boys Choir is giving concerts in spite of the SARS virus. Owing to their tremendous success last year in Sri Lanka and the excellent hospitality accorded to them, they have agreed to come back to Sri Lanka. Although the Vienna Boys Choir is booked out until 2005, Paul Mueller, President of Classic Live (Unlimited) has made it possible to get them back. They came to Sri Lanka last year on the last leg of a three months world tour and the organisers of the concerts saw to it that the boys were not only performers in Sri Lanka but became true friends of this Paradise Island. After sell-out concerts and standing ovations, they took a sight seeing tour to the Elephant Orphanage in Pinnawela and also had a glimpse of the south west coast following an invitation from Jetwing Travels to their Blue Water Hotel in Wadduwa. Later, a coffee afternoon at the beautiful Mount Lavinia Hotel where, coincidentally, the Conductor of the Vienna Boys' Choir, Martin Schebesta had one year before, celebrated his honeymoon. The Vienna Boys' Choir together with all music lovers in Sri Lanka are looking forward to another meeting. Music will once again bring together Austria, the boys' home country and Sri Lanka the host country. Classic live have also invited the Austrian Foreign Minister Dr. Ferrera Wallner, to grace the occasion. ############ Indian film festival 2003 A festival of Indian films will be held at the Russian Cultural Centre, 10 Independence Avenue, Colombo 7, on June 11, 12 and 14. The festival is being organised by the High Commission of India in association with the Asian Film Centre. The following four feature films will be screened at this festival as 5.30 pm every day. On June 14 there will be an additional show at 2.30 pm. June 11 (5.30 pm): Zanjeer directed by Prakash Mehra, starring Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bhaduri: Zanjeer is about a policeman (Amitab Bachchan) who cannot overcome the childhood trauma of having witnessed the murder of his parents. He quits the police force, and enlists the help of an ex-criminal to track down the killer. June 12 (5.30 pm): Pyaasa (black and white) directed and produced by Guru Dutt in 1957 is now an acknowledged classic in India cinema. The story of the misunderstood poet exploited by society and jilted in love, whose work is published through the philanthropy of a prostitute, and who then renounces the fame it brings him,is the first of Guru Dutt's masterpieces. Piyaasa is a romantic melodrama set in Calcutta that tells of the thirst for love, the thirst for recognition and the thirst for spiritual fulfilment. June 14 (2.30 pm): Sarfarosh directed by John Mathew starring Aamir Khan and Sonali Bendre is about a police officer whose family is victimised by the terrorists. After joining the police, he unearths the whole nexus, which starts from Pakistan sending weapons and other mass destruction materials, to the mafias of Bombay underworld. the film sends a message to those who are taking advantage of the innocent ones in the name of religion. June 14 (5.30 pm): The Making of Mahatma, directed by Shyam Benegal, one of the leading film makers in India and co-produced by India and South Africa. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, a young England educated barrister-at-law then practising in Rajkot in Kathiawad is invited by an Indian firm in South Africa to handle their lawsuit. His services are required for a year. But during the very first year he is a witness to and the victim of unjust humiliation and racist hatred. Gandhi stays on in South Africa for 21 years to fight the oppressive regime. Satyagraha is invented and employed by Gandhi. Gandhi returned to India not as Gandhi but as Mahatma, the man destined to free his country from foreign rule through the non-violent means of Satyagraha. The festival is open to the public and is free of charge. |
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This simple truth, he believes, is the secret of his sell-out
exhibitions and why he receives bountiful responses from art critics and
the public of whichever country he happens to hold an exhibition. So far,
he has held 100 one-man exhibitions in 25 countries, cutting across Asia
to America, and has his work on display in all the prominent local
locations of public and private collections, banks and hotels and many
prestigious overseas art galleries, including the United Nations Head
Quarters. "The recent mural I did for the Apollo Hospital here is the
largest and one of the best I have done," he says.
Commenting on the current trends in world art, Senanayake sees an
emerging Asian consciousness in its development. "India, Japan,
Hongkong, Taiwan, China, Korea and Singapore have become great art
markets," he says in support of this theory. "During the last
century, the economic world power bases were Europe and America but I now
think the shift is towards the East. This economic development is tied up
with cultural development, more awareness and a consciousness of their own
culture.
