H.A. Karu - art guru

*******

In life, beauty perishes, but not in art.

(Leonardo da Vinci)

(1452-1519)

*******

In an esteemed gesture, a bright decision was recently reached, to endow high academic honours on the doyen of Sri Lankan artists - H.A. Karunaratne. As I see it, this is an honour, simultaneously conferred upon this distinguished individual and on the total creative urge of our noble land.

Parallel to this significant event, a Retrospective Exhibition had been mounted to provide a fleeting glimpse of the sustained development of this remarkable artist saint.

What so very vividly emerges from this shining profile, is a creative personality, whom any nation could be justly proud of.

H.A. Karu has his roots in a picturesque village. This rural setting was his initial university. The artists and craftsmen of his village, who added a touch of vibrant liveliness, inspired, him by their adeptness. The colourful murals of the temple, formed the 'picture-book' that imparted moral instructions, to last a life-time. Delving into the wisdom, he garnered from his childhood village, H.A. Karu observes, that the ordinary villagers are keen appreciators of 'abstract' art.

The murals in the temple are abstract art - in spirit. The variegated lotus motifs that fill wall-spaces, are abstract portrayals of the real lotus. And again, in those murals, the sun and the moon are given human faces.

H.A. Karu is largely an untutored genius. The call came from within and he nourished it. The spell of formal instruction, entrenched his liberal and unorthodox attitude towards art. He pursued his freedom in art-unabashed, undaunted and uninhibited.

As good fortune, had it, I had the privilege to keep track of his creative progress over several decades.

His early works are a Festival of Rhythms. In those, throbbing, thrilling spasms of colour and light vibrate in a living movement. The patterns of mature linear deployments and passages of graded and contoured colours seem to move in obedience to an invisible, yet apparent discipline.

In yet another phase of H.A. Karu's works, his art takes on the guise of visual songs. Words are everyday tools, we use in speech and writing. But, the poet transforms the grossness of the spoken and the written word, into a new evocative richness. Then comes along the lyricist. In his hands words take on a rhythmic fluidity. In his songs, words melt. They shimmer, scintillate and dance. At one stage in his development, Artist H.A. Karu too emerged as a lyricist of the brush and the palette, allowing his paintings to appear as 'Visual Songs.'

H.A. Karu has decided views about, the conventional notions relating to the 'meaning' of works of art. It unthinkably harsh to dissect and reduce H.A. Karu's art into readily discernible 'meanings'. His creative contemplations, captured with delicacy and high taste on canvas, enter into a spiritual dialogue with the inner being of the beholder. In such an intimate give and take the search for a specific 'meaning' seems a futile exercise.

Artist H.A. Karu is preoccupied with forging his metal in art.

A good part of his creations, in the current phase is, in metal. These messages forged in metal are generally titled as 'Soul Searching'. In these sculptures the artist's soul has soared freely beyond the limits and confines of paintings. In such instances, I tend to think, that, the artist has set aside those familiar tools of his creative expression namely, the brush, the palette, and the usual canvas.

Here, his chosen medium is an unyielding material that is quite challenging and unmalleable. He works in the unsupple medium of metal, as the means through which he could communicate realities that are beyond the work-a-day world. In effect, it is a kind of 'Space Art'. In his latest forged metallic compositions, 'white' predominates, suffusing the works with a kind of ethereality.

H.A. Karu can look back upon a colourful career, that has ramified even beyond our shores.

Way back in 1960, he won a research scholarship to study in Japan. This widened. his creative horizons. It deepened his vision and philosophy. Over and above all those professional benefits, the Japanese tour yielded a `bonus' that is long lasting. It is in Japan that he `won' his wife.

H. A. Karu spends quality time with his wife, children and grand-children, while continuously burnishing his creative vision.

`Prophet' `Sage' and `Saint' are some expressions that could be attached to his personality, as he keeps on evolving.

At one particular stage in his development, he produced a series, which seemed as if he had directly transferred his inner perception, to canvas, without the interference of the brush and the palette. In each of these canvases, the spectator seems to obtain a glimpse of a facet of his inner most being. If through some kind of process, a wisp of pure thought could acquire a colour, it would be equal to a panting of this phase. HA's art of this period is a kind of Haiku evoking especially the world famous Haiku about the frog jumping into an eternally quiet pond, disturbing its ageless placidity, momentarily.

His personal career is replete with glorious moments. He won a Fullbright Award to study Graphic Art in the US. The tour was an aesthetic pilgrimage. He visited world-renowned art museums, studying the work of masters.

As an art guru he has shaped the lives of several generations of students. His primary outlook as a teacher, has been to inculcate creative freedom in the minds of his charges. He discarded the idea of cribbing and confining the students by strict rules, regulations, traditions and school-loyalties. His students who have achieved eminence are ever grateful to their teacher.

The honour conferred upon him is a telling symbol of their gratitude, love and affection to art guru H. A. Karu, who gave them a freedom of vision.

The fame and honour he has earned sit lightly on him. His way of life is characterized by a simplicity, that befits a saint who has discard all burdens.

But, his creativity is perpetually abuzz. He is quite likely to have a whole series of creative surprises up his sleeve.