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| Sunday, 14 August 2005 |
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The World of Stanley Kirinde by SinhaRaja Tammita Delgoda : Commemorating a great artist To commemorate the range and the extent of Stanley Kirinde's achievements in the field of art the Stanley Kirinde Felicitation Committee chaired by the Hon. Lakshman Kadirgamar has produced a lavishly illustrated book of his paintings and his life. This book will be launched on August 18. Entitled The World of Stanley Kirinde, it consists of 329 pages and features 140 illustrations and 33 photographs by Sri Lanka's most celebrated photographers, Nihal Fernando & Studio Times. It is published by Stamford-Lake and printed in Singapore. The book is authored by Dr. SinhaRaja Tammita Delgoda. He is a historian and an author who has written books and articles on travel, history and art. He has an M.A.in European Medieval Literature from the University of York and a PhD in history from Kings College, London. In 1998 he wrote and published a classical vision 'The Art and Landscape' of Stanley Kirinde the first ever study of the painter. His principal work 'A Travellers History of India (Windursh 1994)' is published in the UK, USA, India and Europe. Born in 1930 Stanley Kirinde grew up amidst what is seen as the golden age of modern painting in Sri Lanka. It was a time when Sri Lanka's artists were adopting and adapting themselves to the radical new styles, thinking of contemporary European painting. Absorbing and assimilating the lessons of Expressionism and Cubism they sought to combine this with their own heritage and environment. Whereas most of these artists came from colonial Ceylon's westernized and urbanized bourgeoisie, Kirinde hailed from the rural, traditional world of the Kandyan highlights. Steeped in the age old beliefs and customs of Sinhalese Buddhism, history tradition and ritual loomed large in the atmosphere in which he grew up, forming a living part of his artistic inheritance. The world of Stanley Kirinde is like a mirror which reflects all the different aspects of Sri Lanka; its Buddhist inheritance, its stunning landscape, its ancient history, and its colourful, sometimes stormy contemporary life. Kirinde's subsequent education at Trinity College Kandy, one of the country's great public schools and then Peradeniya University saw him become deeply immersed in the art and learning of Western Europe. His understanding of the latest intellectual and artistic currents was combined with a great feeling for his country and a special insight into its heritage and way of life. It is this duality of past and present which makes his work so unique, rendering it classical and modern, traditional yet at the same time contemporary. To see Sri Lanka through Kirinde's eyes is to dip into a repository of fact, feeling and folklore, enriched by brilliant colour and enhanced by exquisite line. Today Stanley Kirinde is the nearest thing that Sri Lanka has to an official painter.His paintings adorn the walls of President's House(Kandy and Colombo), the Foreign Ministry, the Military Academy and several Government and Private Institutions. His work has been exhibited in Bangladesh, Japan, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom and the United States of America and has been purchased by several foreign Museums (the Fukuoka Art Museum, Japan, the Singapore Art Museum and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts). Many of his paintings are in private collections in Sri Lanka and abroad, including that of the Prince of Wales. In 2000 he was invited by the Government of India to paint a portrait of the President of India, one of the few foreigners ever to be asked to paint a likeness of an Indian head of state. |
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