From his first brush with Kandyan art to a bigger canvas
S. H. Sarath was born and grew up in Weligama, where his imagination was coloured early by the sea, the beach, nature and communal village life: the pola or the village market with its colours, pungent smells and noise- and the exotic devilry of midnight exorcism rites. A regular sight was Kushtarajagala, the stone carving of a deity from the ancient Anuradhapura period, staring enigmatically by an old road with a face tantalizingly full of secrets.
Seated in his house in Colombo, Sarath’s eyes glaze as he recalls that world that has faded away. Weligama is not the same anymore and Sarath has scaled heights unimaginable for a wide-eyed little boy attending the village school. The beginning of July (starting from tomorrow) will see SH Fifty 1968-2018, a retrospective exhibition at the JDA Perera Gallery marking the fiftieth year of the artist’s professional saga.
The journey proper began in the village temples where he had his first brush with art: the Kandyan murals on the vihare walls; traditional and two dimensional but with a stylized, disciplined beauty narrating ancient stories.
All that linear art was to spring to voluptuous life when he moved to the Government College of Fine Arts, ‘the Heywood’. There he got his first taste of western academic art, working by closely observing life rather than out of imagination as the Sinhalese painter of yore did.
In 1979 Sarath was offered a scholarship to Silpakorn University, Thailand, where he was to study Thai and Sri Lankan art. His exhibition there was featured in Asiaweek.
Young Sarath, with his eye for colour and aesthetic sense, happily became involved with film and drama in Colombo- in makeup, set and costume as well as art direction. He was also an illustrator for Hansa Publishers founded by H. D. Sugathapala, a former principal of Royal College. The friends and contacts made during these forays enriched his life.
Tissa Ranasinghe, the celebrated sculptor and sometime principal at Heywood, offered a strong guiding hand, helping Sarath hold his first ever exhibition with Henry Perera.
Sarath’s first solo exhibition was in 1974 at the Lionel Wendt, opened by Martin Wickremesinghe, the great writer fostered in another Southern village.
Sarath believes that for an artist, the importance of having an individual style is paramount and that it is imperative that an artist be trained in academic drawing. It is also important to remain updated, he says, from Michelangelo to contemporary work, studying all major artists of the West.
S.H. Sarath
His own work is a beautiful amalgamation of the Kandyan art he imbibed as a child and what he learnt at Heywood, Thailand and later at the University of South Australia in the early ‘90s.
On Sarath’s canvases you see the same round, robust Kandyan face and often the hair and the drapery have the identical elegance as in the murals- but all this is wonderfully leavened with modern influences- cubism or a touch of Van Gogh and often that impish humour that has become Sarath’s trademark.
While chatting, he allows us into the privacy of a sketchbook, where each morning’s inspiration is deftly given life. There is the electricity meter reader swimming to flooded houses to give the monthly bill, the two gods Ganesh and Kataragama visiting their father god Iswara with offerings of pooja watti fruit baskets. His satire is quirky- though often verging on the grotesque.
It was his concern for day to day human issues that made S. H. Sarath an iconic artist. In the late ‘70s he broke away from the pastoral scenes to make people see further and think wider through art. Among those works – considered very radical then- was the picture of the Buddha, sheltered by the king -serpent Muchalinda, putting out his hand to see whether the rain has ceased. There was also god Kataragama resting, his fearsome weapons scattered negligently around him.
These exhibitions were phenomenal successes. Everyone from municipal workers collecting garbage to society women came in to admire- something Sarath does not see happening now.
The journey for Sarath has been long and fruitful. He has held international exhibitions in Switzerland, France, Norway, Canada, Australia, the Republic of Korea and India and many other countries. Among the many accolades are two acclaimed exhibitions at the UN, while one of his paintings permanently adorns a wall of the UN Headquarters, Geneva. Equally precious to him are the Kalasoori and Ruhunu-Putra awards given by his country and his native south.
Yet he finds it deeply distressing that Sri Lanka possesses no gallery or museum to house modern art- representing the eras which followed Kandyan Art. This huge void should be filled if our art is to have a future, he stresses, pointing out that conservation of art is a vital need for the future while students of every age and discipline need an institution that collates the island’s heritage of modern art. The public and foreign visitors too have no place where they can get an idea of the richness of our contemporary art. As a result the fervour in the ’70s has dried out.
“As a new building is now being constructed in Battaramulla for the Western Provincial Council, I propose that the old Provincial Council building near the museum be made into a modern art museum or gallery,” he suggests.
His spontaneously radiant smile breaks through and his eyes glint with hope that has not died, though battered, for the future of Sri Lankan art.
SH Fifty, the retrospective exhibition covering the years 1968 to 2018 will take place on July 2,3, 4 and 5 at the J.D.A. Perera Gallery, Horton Place Colombo 7.