Dr SinhaRaja Tammita Archives

Searching for George Keyt-By Uditha Devapriya Source:Island Image Source:Island George Keyt, Sri Lanka’s most celebrated painter, died 30 years ago in 1993. During his life and after his death, he became the subject of several studies by Sri Lankan and foreign scholars. Today his paintings have found their way to some of the biggest art collections in his country, as well as to places like Christie’s and Sotheby’s. Taken together, these paintings represent some of the finest examples of modern art in Sri Lanka and Asia. They have also become symbols of Asian modernism. Born in 1901 in the mountainous region of Kandy, some 75 miles from Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo, George Keyt hailed from a middle-class family that had become thoroughly Westernised and Anglicised. They belonged to the Burgher community, an ethnic group which traces its descent from the Portuguese and the Dutch. By the 20th century the ...

Launch of “George Keyt: The Absence of a Desired Image” Dr SinhaRaja Tammita-Delgoda Source:Dailymirror Image Source:Dailymirror The latest and by far the most comprehensive study of Sri Lanka’s pre-eminent painter, George Keyt: The Absence of a Desired Image was launched at The Residence at Cinnamon Life on Tuesday, January 23. The event was attended by many of Sri Lanka’s leading intellectual figures, members of the diplomatic community, and representatives of sectors inclusive of the media, advertising, academia, civil society, and the corporate world. Authored by Dr SinhaRaja Tammita-Delgoda, Sri Lanka’s leading art historian, and published by the Taprobane Collection, one of Sri Lanka’s most extensive collections of art, George Keyt: The Absence of a Desired Image places Keyt in the context of his times, focusing on areas that have not been studied in relation to his career. The book features paintings, photographs, illustrations, and images hitherto unpublished, and archive material ...