Dumith Kulasekara: Visual Arts Practice, Research & Writing.

  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 stud...

I started writing on  H.A. Karunarathne's works many years ago with the title of "The Avant-garde Artist and A Materialist of Sri Lankan Art". For some reason, I couldn't complete the text. A few days ago, I visited him and his work at his studio to discuss the forthcoming staff exhibition of the department of painting. This was my third visit to his studio. The following is the extract from the conversation that I had with H.A. Karunarathe at his studio in March 2021. It should be noted that there is no particular order of the questions asked from HA. The conversation flowed on as one step leading to another.  H. A Karunarathne plays a prolific role in the landscape of Sri Lankan modern and contemporary art. He is the most senior artist living and working constantly in studio contexts today. The other two senior artists in his generation retired Professor Albert Dharamsiri and W.A. Ariyasena are also contributing to Sri Lankan Art through their visual languages. Howe...

  Albert Dharmasiri was the first professor in Painting at the Department of Painting. His unique scholarly contribution to the literature of Sri Lankan Art has been significant and unavoidable landmark of writing of Sri Lankan Art. In the recent book, Dharmasiri relooks at George Keyt’s position in the context of Sri Lankan and South Asian Art. Unique scholarly investigation on   Keytian   Language of Drawing and Painting with very rare collection of reproduction of his works, this book gives a comprehensive reading of George Keyt’s works and his contemporary context as well. A comprehensive review of the book is published on this blog soon. Dumith Kulasekara  January 30 2021

  Due to the prevailing situation of the Pandemic, this event has been postponed. An exhibition of recent works by the Fulltime Faculty, Visiting Faculty  and Invited Artists will be held in May 2021 at the Faculty of Visual Arts, and on Online as a virtual exhibition. This exhibition will feature  works in different languages of  visual arts, and address diversities of themes and subjects that associated with the artists' creative research practice in their personal and social contexts.

The 1950s was a period that marked significant changes that happened on both the super and infrastructures of Sri Lanka. Such changes were reflected in cultural lives and their productions made within that context. In particular, from a political, social, and cultural point of view, the year 1956 was significantly traced as a period that the mainstream ideological belief of the country was turned into another direction (maybe with a belief of a positive future). At that time the state of the country thought that the roots of Sri Lankan energetic forces had been hidden, therefore, such forces should be re-generated.  It formed a new political movement with empowering native five great forces.  In this text, I am not going to discuss such issues and areas, obviously, it is another research. The reason that I slightly mentioned such historical background is because the subject of this text; "the Red Youth" (pic: 1) was painted in the year 1956. In 2018 (I cannot remember the exa...