 Buddhist
Monks
Oil on canvas. 88 x 60 cm
Night Detained. 1992
Acrylic on canvas. 78 x 78 cm
The Serendib Gallery Collection |
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There was a time when George Keyt's pictures reflected the opulent splendours of the
eternal world, enhanced by and through the play of light and perspective. Later his
chief concern became the quietly and methodical expression of this eternal reality in
terms of pure symbols, plastic, elliptic, synthetic and well balanced. His language
from then on become the language of line arabesques and pure colour harmonies. This
deliberate simplification resulted in works which are not in the least abstract or
schematic, but in which the full richness of reality is recaptured and implicit. The
intensity and beauty that can be seen is matched here by the intensity of a mind that
judges, selects, rules and governs itself. Within this limited field a rare plastic
sense is continually manifested, effortless and always wonderful. All the pleasures
which one expects as a matter of course to derive from pictures are offered to us here in
this artist's vigorous region of the intellect munificently. The artist himself has
described this art most aptly as an art of ALANKARA, or MAKING BEAUTIFUL.
His windows opening into luxuriant paradise, the flower vases and the musical
instruments and mirrors his women hold in their hands, are things that satisfy the
artist's sovereign intelligence. To him they appear, not as a mere decor, but as the
very substance of himself. This is a superior art where "decoration becomes
expression". We find in these paintings an exquisite, dazzling and irresistibly
seductive grace manifest in the invention of these creatures who take their place from now
onwards in the gallery of women of Ingres, Matisse, Sigiriya, Ajanta and the bas-reliefs
of ancient Hindu temples. The women of George Keyt too have their secret, and their
own inalienable perfection.
Prof. S B Dissanayake |
Retrospective Exhibition
