George Percival Sproule Keyt, (17 April 1901 – 31 July 1993) was a
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
n painter.
[George Keyt, a centennial anthology]
(George Keyt Foundation) He is often considered
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
's most distinguished modern painter.
Keyt's dominant style is influenced by
cubism
Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement which began in Paris. It revolutionized painting and the visual arts, and sparked artistic innovations in music, ballet, literature, and architecture.
Cubist subjects are analyzed, broke ...
. He also claimed to be influenced by his contemporary
Henri Matisse
Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual arts, visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, ...
and the ancient Buddhist art and sculpture of
Nagarjunakonda
Nagarjunakonda (ISO: Nāgārjunikoṇḍā, meaning Nagarjuna Hill) is a historical town, now an island located near Nagarjuna Sagar in Palnadu district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is one of India's richest Buddhist sites, and n ...
,
Sanchi
Sanchi Stupa is a Buddhist art, Buddhist complex, famous for its Great Stupa, on a hilltop at Sanchi Town in Raisen District of the States and territories of India, State of Madhya Pradesh, India. It is located, about 23 kilometers from Raisen ...
and
Gandhara
Gandhara () was an ancient Indo-Aryan people, Indo-Aryan civilization in present-day northwest Pakistan and northeast Afghanistan. The core of the region of Gandhara was the Peshawar valley, Peshawar (Pushkalawati) and Swat valleys extending ...
.
[ The ]Jataka tales
The ''Jātaka'' (Sanskrit for "Birth-Related" or "Birth Stories") are a voluminous body of literature native to the Indian subcontinent which mainly concern the previous births of Gautama Buddha in both human and animal form. Jataka stories we ...
formed a recurring theme in many of his works.[Gotama Buddha Murals]
by Professor Anuradha Seneviratna (The Island), Retrieved 22 October 2015
In addition to being a painter, Keyt was a poet. He outlined his perceptions and practice as a painter in a few essays on the vision of the painter. One of his most notable literary works is his translation of the ''Gita Govinda
The ''Gita Govinda'' (; IAST: ''gītagovindam'') is a work composed by the 12th-century Hindu poet, Jayadeva. It describes the relationship between Krishna, Radha and ''gopis'' (female cow herders) of Vrindavan.
The ''Gita Govinda'' is organiz ...
'' into English (Bombay, 1940) and Sinhalese.[The lives of Keyt]
by Tissa Devendra (Sunday Observer), Retrieved 22 October 2015 These translations were illustrated by his own line drawings (see Martin Russell collection and Amerasinghe-Ganendra collections).
Early life
Keyt was born in Ceylon
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
, the son of Henry Kriekenbeek Keyt and Constance Evelyn née Sproule. He was educated at Trinity College (Kandy), an elite colonial school in the British public school tradition. Stemming from Anglo-Dutch Burgher origins, Keyt gave much time from an early age to drawing and the study of art and developed a consuming passion for books and reading.
Influence
The spell of the ancient hill capital and its Buddhist
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
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 values of the westernised milieu of the class into which he was born.
His explorations in ]Hindu mythology
Hindu mythology refers to the collection of myths associated with Hinduism, derived from various Hindu texts and traditions. These myths are found in sacred texts such as the Vedas, the Itihasas (the ''Mahabharata'' and the ''Ramayan ...
and Indian literature
Indian literature refers to the literature produced on the Indian subcontinent until 1947 and in the Republic of India thereafter. The Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India has 22 officially recognised languages. Sahitya Akadem ...
led him to close links with the cultural life of India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
, where he lived for long and short periods from 1939 right up to the late seventies. To the Sri Lankan Buddhist source were now added the imagery of Hindu myth and legend as key influences.
A meeting with Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Thakur (; anglicised as Rabindranath Tagore ; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengalis, Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter of the Bengal Renai ...
in the 1930s in Ceylon left a lasting impression.
43 Group
In 1930 at the Ferguson Hall, Union Place, the photographer Lionel Wendt organised Keyt and fellow artist Geoffrey Beling's first exhibition. Critics considered the art ‘manifestly ridiculous and degrading’, however Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda ( ; ; born Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto; 12 July 190423 September 1973) was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Neruda became known as a poet when he was 13 years old an ...
, the Chilean poet, wrote in the '' Times of Ceylon'' that "true artists are rare in Ceylon. There are two exceptions". The exhibition also included works by Charles Freegrove Winzer, to whom Keyt and Beling were pupils.
Keyt was a founder member of the Colombo '43 Group
The '43 Group was a 20th-century modern art school established in August 1943 in Colombo, Sri Lanka (then British Ceylon).
The group was essentially an association of like-minded artists who had broken away from the Ceylon Society of Arts, led b ...
of Sri Lankan artists, and one of its four leading painters, along with Ivan Peries, Justin Daraniyagala and Harry Pieris. Keyt, Pieris and Lionel Wendt are also known for their efforts to popularise Kandyan dance
Kandyan dance (Sinhala language, Sinhala: උඩරට නැටුම්) encompasses various dance forms popular and native to the area called Kandy of the Central Hills region known as Udarata in Sri Lanka, which have today spread to other pa ...
and other Sri Lankan dance
There are several styles of classical and folk dance in Sri Lanka.
Classical dances
There are three main styles of Sri Lankan classical dance:
*The his rakus meant Rak + Kus > cultivators) -->
Classical dances
There are three main styles of ...
forms.Traditional dance in British Ceylon
by Kamalika Pieris (The Island), Retrieved 22 October 2016 Harold Peiris
Harold Peiris (1904–1981) was a Sri Lankan lawyer, author, scholar, teacher, patron of the arts, and philanthropist. He was the co-founder of the Lionel Wendt Art Centre and its sole life-trustee.[London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...]
and other European and American centres. His pictures are found in various museums and galleries abroad, as well as in private collections in Sri Lanka and throughout the world.[
]
Honours
Sri Lanka has issued several stamps featuring the paintings of George Keyt. He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...
(MBE) in the 1953 New Year Honours.
References
External links
The George Keyt Foundation
Examples of contemporary Sri Lankan painting
The lives of Keyt In memory of the 106th birth anniversary of George Keyt
{{DEFAULTSORT:Keyt, George
1901 births
1993 deaths
Alumni of Trinity College, Kandy
Burgher artists
People from British Ceylon
Sri Lankan Buddhists
Sri Lankan people of Dutch descent
20th-century Sri Lankan painters
Ceylonese Members of the Order of the British Empire
Kala Keerthi
Buddhist artists