Sri Lankan Modern Art: George Keyt: A Portrait of the Artist by Albert Dharmasiri

 

an Artist looking at an Artist

George Keyt: A Portrait of the Artist by Albert Dharmasiri

If I am not mistaken, I first met Professor Albert Dharmasiri in 2005 when I was a second-year student at the department of painting. Albert Dharmasiri who was the first Professor in Painting taught the courses in life drawing and life painting at the department. He had experiences of teaching and being in the highest academic bodies at UVPA  nearly for four decades. One day, I remembered he came to the studio for life painting sessions with a book on one of the most celebrated figurative painters of all time Lucian Freud (1922 – 2011). He talked about the beauty of paint application in his nudes painting. In particular, the poses of the human body that Freud depicted were appreciated by Professor Dharmasiri. And in one of his drawing sessions, Professor Dharmsiri said that “look at the inner rhythmical structure of the human body, as you can see it in leaves...”. Albert Dharmasiri studied painting and graphic design at the Camberwel College of Arts (University of Arts London)  London from 1961 to 1965. Once he mentioned to me that he studied under American artist R. B. Kitaj (1932 - 2007) who taught at Camberwel College at that time. He had very close associations with iconic figures in Sri Lanka Modern Art Movement; George Keyt, Justin Daraniyagala,  David Paynter, Stanley Abesinghe, and Sennaka Bandaranayaka, etc. Although this is not about a text of Albert Dharmasiri, I should say that he is one of the rare artists and writers in the country who had opportunities to meet such iconic figures at an early age in his career. It is certain that those relationships have been a significant influence on his artistic and writing practice.

Dharmasiri has written several books and articles on Sri Lankan Art. The recent book entitled “ George Keyt: A Portrait of the Artist” written by Dharmasiri explores the visual language developed by George Keyt (1901 – 1993) in the context of modern art in Sri Lanka. As the title of the book clearly stated, I would define this book as a piece of art, portraying George Keyt by Dharmasiri.  Dharmasiri looks at Keyt’s visual language not only as an art historian but as a practicing artist. More significantly as a modernist painter who plays a significant role on the subject of the female nudes represented in modern art in Sri Lanka.  Being an artist that kind has given Dharmasiri an extraordinary capacity to observe the artistic practice of  Keyt from a wider perspective. That goes beyond the role of an art historian.  As he is also an artist, particular works on the similar subject as Keyt did, Dharmasiri sees the embodiment of beauty, in particular through local female bodies, aesthetic appeals coming out of such expressions, and manipulation of artistic principle practicing in the studio context for a visual language. He has trained his eyes, hand, and mind at the highest level. Another relationship that I find between the author of this book and the subject of the book: the artist Keyt is that they both have intimacy with art and literature. In this sense, Dharmasiri's recent book is about a recounting of how "an artist looks at an artist". And I hope that his text will become a significant contribution to the discourse of the history of Modern Art in Sri Lanka,  which has not broadly developed in discursive ways within the academic context. I claim that this is also related to the discourse developed on the art practice that began after the late 20th century in Sri Lanka. 

The book published in 2020 includes a rare collection of ink drawings that Keyt created in the 1920s (I see them for the first time), and paintings belong from the early period to the later period in the artist's studio practice. It is fascinated to see that this kind of collection of Keyt's works in one book. Looking at the visual essay on the works reproduced in the book, it signifies that Emeritus Professor Dharmasiri reveals a certain narration of the language of drawing and painting of Keyt developed over several decades. Giving the historical backgrounds of his early works and the signature style recognized as “Keyt” in its language of art, it is clear that Dharmasiri’s intention is to prove the visual language of Keyt is not just a suddenly alienated form but a continuation and rediscovering the essence of the great traditions of Sri Lankan – Indian painting and sculpture, and transcend the essence into a broader context with carefully interweaving with formal qualities of European modern language of painting.  

When Keyt invented the signature style of his art,  influences of the European early modern language of painting such as Post-Impressionism ( Cezannian and Gauginian) and Cubism are evident (my sense is that he is not "speaking" in the language of European Modernism). Dharmasiri describes this idea by illustrating his biographical history and artistic practice together in his book. Providing a range of information on the exhibitions’ history of Keyt with his contemporaries that includes prolific figures in Modern Sri Lankan Art: J.D.A. Perera, Geoffery Beling, Justin Daraniyalgala, Lionel Wendt and the Group 43 artists and so on, the book marks the show held in the late 1920s as an implication of Keyt’s direction into neo-futuristic form (my emphasis: the form of early cubism) of the language (Dharmasiri, 2020, p. 24). It seems that this idea discussed in the book is referred to the black and white reproduction of one of Keyt’s early paintings (which is not shown here in this text) that show the visual relationship to the Cezannian pictorial language. 

Transcending the language of the great tradition of art in the past to the contemporary context of art (within the context he worked) is something that Keyt encountered the Sri Lankan art into a new vision. Therefore, it requires to rethink about “Keyt”, I would suggest a sign of “Keyt” within the context of Sri Lankan Art and in the region as well, in particular with the discourse of modernism. Finding a self-voice within the context of cultural hybridization - mixed with the past and present or eastern and western has been a profound struggle for the artists in the early 20th century.  This phenomenon was apparent regionally and in many other non-western cultural contexts. In fact,  whether it is believed or not the genealogical history of artists would also play an unavoidable role in forming artists' language. A lot of early modernist artists in Sri Lanka had also belonged to such hybrid cultural history which are present in their works.  I will discuss this topic in another text of Sri Lanka Art which would be a text on the investigation or socio-cultural and political influence on art. so, I will keep it for the future.

Returning to my previous discussion, the book is essentially important for an in-depth survey on Keyt. However, by looking carefully at his drawing and painting, it reveals Keyt’s struggles for shaping his language and extending the art into a wider audience by transcending the essence of the past language of art where his ideology and visual vocabulary was shaped with. In shaping the language throughout his career it is evident that the subject matters in the Buddhist and  Hindu mythologies and literature have been instinctively connected into his life and art which is discussed in the book.  Providing historical and cultural contexts on this idea, informing the modern art in Sri Lanka, throughout the essays in the book Dharmasiri asserts that Keyt is one of the prolific figures whose contribution to developing the modern language of art is significant. 

The reproduction of the 12th-century fresco painting from Thiwanka Temple in Polonnaruwa and Keyt’s version of the same subject of “Sasa Jataka” is an example of showing not only the thematic relationship but also visual association between both works. At the same time, beautifully reproduction of drawings, illustrations, and paintings of female bodies associated with religious, mythological, and imaginary pictorial compositions in this book, Dharmasiri also applies his own (the author’s) artistic vision and fascination on the beauty of the female body when exploring the essence of Keyt’s language of art. He defines three major stages of transformation of Keyt’s language from the early 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s by giving a wider analysis of the artist's journey with a biographical and social context of Keyt’s life. His conceptualization of the pictorial evolution of Keyt’s works into major three phases identifies in the 1920s as a geometrized natural form (Dharmasiri, 2020, p. 93) represented in a limited palette, the phase began in the 1930s as a movement of his language similar to modern paintings: as Dharmasiri describes;           

The organization of form on a two-dimensional plane and multiple angles of vision features apparent in  Keyt’s works in this period, (Dharmasiri, 2020, p. 94)

As it is clearly discussed in the book, Keyt’s lifelong friendship with Lionel Wendt had been one of the key reasons that drove him into the European notion of painting where artists radically rejected the orthodox notion of representational manner of art. However, it is certain that Keyt responded to such European encounters to develop his own voice in the language of art. As it is discussed in the book, the final phase which continues throughout Keyt’s life, signifies the high point or in other words, the signature style of Keyt, marked in the works created after the 1940s (Dharmasiri, 2020, p. 94).   Keyt's attempts in finding his own voice within the two contexts of languages are exemplified by the reproduction of the temple mural of Gothami Vihara (Dharmaisir, 2020, p.88) where he depicted the image Mara in languages influenced by Cubism.  One of the best examples of this is (which is not reproduced in this book) a painting by Keyt at the collection of Fukuoka Asian Art Museum (FAMM).  Nonetheless, if I extend this discussion on Keyt's special work at the temple of Gothami Viharaya, it seems that Keyt's had shown a different way of thinking, in terms of the context that he worked in. The presence of self-controlled language of drawing and painting with a limited color palette is evident in this mural painting.  It seems that he has much associated with the traditional language of painting which significantly featured the reduction of the rhetoric of poetic language of drawing and painting. The figures painted in the temple mural by Keyt do not show individuality and emotions related to the situation. The language presence in these murals is very linear. I consider this as an intellectual response to the wider context, as it is for public art to a certain extent, but with the context of urban society. At the same time, I would say that Keyt is not Keyt in those works. 

With his tremendous capacity on purifying the impulses into an essence, the works created after this period seem more pronouncing heaviness of sculptural quality of the body. On the other hand, the great tradition of the language of Sri Lankan art is not the language of art that represents the material world, rather it is a conceptualization of imaginary ideals brought into secular life through the channel of religious and state power. It was a privilege for him.

Returning to a particular area of Keyt's works and the content of the book, my emphasis here is that Key’t desire for the female body and the nudity has been present in his works since the beginning of his artistic practice. His most desired subject has been the female body. That was his artistic ground where he performed on. In each period, the author describes, that phenomenon has been present in his works. His women are between real and imaginary. In his words, Dharmasiri describes; Eroticism is the dominant element in the Art of Keyt (Dharmasiri, 2020, p. 96).  As the book revealed Keyt’s education and cultural background, his constant associations with literature and mythological stories have registered his unconscious desire with the Asian sense of the beauty of the female body. This unavoidable phenomenon is present in most of Keyt's works.  This is evident by the reproduction of Keyt’s drawings made in blue color on the Salalihini Sandehsa (pp 138-139) in Dharmasiri's book. These illustrations with a refinement of line in representing a sense of form created in the 1950s is an evolution of his early language of drawing created for the book titled A Young People Life of Buddha written by Bhiku Silacara in 1927.

            

Turning into the thematic approaches, the book consists of literature on Keyt’s vision beyond the traditional heterosexual eroticism.  He painted women in love as the book describes by quoting Sunil Gunasekara’s statement on Keyt’s sensation on “lesbianism”; “He found that this bond is indescribable in words' ' (Dharmasiri, 2020, p. 98). And Keyt’s women are active in most of the subjects that he painted on mythological stories. This reminds me of John Berger’s notion on the difference between women represented in western art and Asian art, in particular Indian art, where he describes the women as being active(Berger, 1972, p. 53).

                

Moving into another place in the book where I am fascinated by the beautiful reproduction of the painting titled “Damayanthi and Hansa” (P 169)  that gives me a sense of relationship to the western iconography of the subject painted on “Leda”.  The female naked body of “Damayanthi” implies the iconography of the Venus of Medici. As it is intrinsic to his art, Keyt’s voluptuous female body is also covering her genitals by her left arm which is very westernized in that sense. The painting titled Lady with a Mirror (P 173) is another example of this.

In addition to the discussion developed in the book, it is clear that Keyt has had a sophisticated knowledge of realism of depicting the female body. Also, it seems that he has intentionally not gone that far as he subconsciously controls his language to find his own direction in the art. The work titled The Mirror reproduced in the book (Dharmasiri, 2020, p. 145) is one of the examples that implies a visual connotation to the most popular themes related to the beauty of the female body represented in western art, and the sense of realism in the female body represented in the art. I am not saying that he was directly inspired by European masters like Gustave Courbet but trying to state how the different contexts of language have attempted to find particularities within the broader contexts. Precisely, If I borrow the language from Linda Nochlin on her lifelong survey on Courbet, I would add that Keyt has also depicted “robustly sensual, sexually provocative..” (Nochlin, 2007, p. 204) female bodies.

 

The Body of work created by George Keyt is relevant all time to understand Sri Lankan Modern Art. In this sense, the book significantly develop a new discourse to understand the modern art movement in Sri Lanka and the role of the artist like Keyt with his contemporaries. Keyt didn’t rediscover the line of the great traditional art of Sri Lanka or India, he neither imitated the European modern language of drawing and painting. Going beyond on that level, transcending the essence of both traditions, Keyt found his own voice in line, form, and color palette (which is very local) that has allowed him to assert his position within the context of Sri Lankan art and its relationship with the South Asian Art.

What the art of Keyt represents is that the personality of himself as an artist in finding out the personal language within the dominants discourse of European art and the legacy of traditional art. 

Finally, the artistic and cultural knowledge produced on Key in this book by Dharmasiri implies the importance of reinvestigating different perspectives of understanding the art in Sri Lanka and broadly in the non-Eurocentric world within a broader academic context. 

Reference

Berger, J. (1972). Ways of Seeing. Middlesex: Penguin Book. 

Dharmasiri, A. (2020). George Keyt: A Portrait of the Artist. Colombo: The National Trust Sri Lanka.

Love, M. (2007). Asian Collection 100. In F. A. A. Museum, Asian Collection 100: Fukuoka Asian Art Collection (p. 32). FAAM. 

Nochlin, L. (2007). Courbet. London: Thames and Hudson.

Dumith Kulasekara (2021. Colombo)