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| Sunday, 27 July 2003 |
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Sculptors and painters 2003 exhibit: Cultural elements from everywhere by Jayanthi Liyanage
Art and sculpture are a record of human experience which evoke different visions in dissimilar artists and viewers. One such fascinating mix created an absorbing diversion for art lovers of Colombo and beyond when the George Keyt Foundation brought together last week, a posse of local artists, to create an exhibition of contemporary art in Sri Lanka in "Sculptors and Painters 2003". There was a wide sweep work of the 51 artists on display, such as S.H. Sarath, Marie Alles Fernando, Iromi Wijewardena, Helaka Ruwanpura, Channa Ekanayake, Jack Kulasinghe, K. D. Lakshman, Ifthikar Cader, Nirmala De Alwis, Royden O. Gibbs, D. Raja Segar and Thuiya Pushpakumara, and sculptors such as W. Nayanananda, and what a few of the artists individually expressed, created a parallel discussion as to what contemporary art is. How could we evolve a contemporary art which can grow its roots strong into the soil, was the issue. If one was to go by Herbert Read's "If art's vitality comes from the cross-breeding of styles, its strength comes from stability, from its roots that grow deep into a native soil," this was braced by Iromi Wijewardena when she said, "The younger artists are going for a lot of non-figurative art and following their masters which I don't think is the best they should do.
Looking at some abstract art, I wonder whether the artist really has any understanding of what he is trying to say." S.H. Sarath endorses the last, "If your art is not prompted by vision, it becomes gallery art." Iromi's view was that a native artist identity should be invoked when one exhibits at international exhibitions. "Confining art in periodism stopped for Sri Lankan art after its seventies decade of abstract art and one cannot define art in trends or traditions. Only those who lack a formal education of the history of art and are ensnared by the Expressionism of European art think in trends and traditions," says Thiuva Pushpakumara who believes in humanism of art and defines contemporary art as individual experiences of artists culled from their lives. As an example, he describes his exhibit, "Male" (a three-panel depiction of the male), as a critique of male chauvinism, gleaned from his experience in seeing how women and the less-empowered in our society look up to the male as deity, for favours to be bestowed on them. Each painting and sculpture on display exudes its own flavour and each is its own blend of imagination and personality, from differents facets of time, place and conception. Nayanananda's sculpture on Coral stone, "Embrace emit grief", is almost over-powering in the penetrating sensations its harsh edges bring out in the observer. "I mean no harm" indicates the tusker to the petrified human in Nirmala De Alwis's fauna painting, bringing to focus the plight of the local elephant embroiled in a struggle with the human for native land. Channa Ekanayake's "Lotus on a rock wall" occupies a niche of its own in the manner it brings out the purity and fragility of white blooms against the implacable hard grey. The sum total of the tradition-inclined and modern art on display is an assertion of Martin Wickremasinghe's statement that only unprogressive nations hide their sterility of souls, seeking indigenous and supernatural origins for their institutions and culture; and that progressive nations borrowed cultural elements from everywhere and asserted their virile genius in remoulding and recreating them.
The George Keyt Foundation is set up with the objective of giving opportunities and patronage to up-coming and outstation artists who cannot travel to Colombo, states Sita De Silva, Secretary, Board of Trustees. The Foundation's next project will be the international artists' camp to be held outside Colombo, bringing artists from Europe and Asia over here for the benefit of local artists who cannot afford overseas travel. This exhibition presented at the Harold Peiris Gallery of Lionel Wendt Art Centre was sponsored by Udaya Shan Fernando of Paradise Road Galleries in an admirable gesture towards promoting local artists. Today would be the last date of the exhibition which began on July 22. |
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