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| Wednesday, 16 April 2003 |
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It will be George Keyt's 102nd birth anniversary on April 17. The Anniversary will be marked this year at the Indian Cultural Centre, No. 133, Bauddhaloka Mawatha, Colombo 4 on Wednesday, April 23. The George Keyt Foundation has unveiled a facsimile of a George Keyt painting each year and will do so this year too the 8th in the series. These facsimiles of some of these famous paintings are being released in this manner to enable the public to be able to have exact copies of George Keyt's paintings. There will also be a musical presentation by Ravibandhu Vidyapathy, Priyantha Dassanaike, Sujeeva Ranasinghe, Sudath Samarasinghe, Gayanath Dahanaike and Nesan Thiyagarajah. The Chief Guests this year will be two other Giants of the Arts Centre for hosting the celebration of the 102nd birth anniversary as a further commitment to the development of the Arts in Sri Lanka. Born a year after the turn of the last century, George Keyt, Sri Lanka's most distinguished and renowned modern painter, stemming from Indo-Dutch origins gave much time from an early age to drawing and the study of art, and developed a consuming passion for books and reading. The spell of the ancient hill capital and its Buddhist aura soon came to exercise a powerful and lasting influence and was to provide both the literary and artistic stimulus, living so close to the Malwatte Vihare. He became greatly drawn towards Buddhism and championed the cause of the Buddhist revival. He wrote profusely in both prose and verse. The young painter also began to turn his back on the stifling values of the Westernised millieu of the class into which he was born. His explorations in Hindu mythology and Indian literature led him to close links with the cultural life of India, where he has lived for long and short periods from 1939 right up to the late seventies and to the Sri Lanka Buddhist sources where now added are the compelling imagery of Hindu myth and legend as vital influences. A meeting with Rabindranath Tagore in the nineteen thirties in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) left a lasting impression. Many exhibitions of his work have also been held in India, London and other European and American centres. His pictures are to be found in various museums and galleries abroad, as well as in private collections in Sri Lanka and throughout the world. His work has been introduced and eulogised by eminent critics such as Herbert Read, William Archer, Andre Chamson, George Besson, Mulk Raj Anand, E. M. Forster, John Berger and William Graham, while discerning critics in his own country have been quick to laud his imperious progress. His fame as a painter has obscured his significance as a poet; not so well known, therefore, is the fact that he was one of the few poets of any stature in contemporary Sri Lanka. He has also proclaimed his percepts and practice as a painter in a few notable essays on the vision of the painter, and art in relation to the beholder and pervading reality. H. A. I. Goonetileke |
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