George Keyt to star in Sotheby’s London sale
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Lovers 1935
Ishrat Kanga, Head of Sotheby’s London Sale of Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art, said: “The influence of the western avant-garde spread all across the world in the mid-20th century, to trailblazing artists who wanted to forge their own artistic path in their respective countries. George Keyt was at the very forefront of this movement in Sri Lanka. Adopting the influences of Cubism, from Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, into his own local idiom, he radicalised his art practice and became one of the most important modern artists of his time.”
George Keyt’s oil paintings, Lovers and Nayika (Vasantha Raga) have the ‘holy grail’ of provenance for works by the artist, having once been in the collection of Martin Russell, one of the most important patrons of Sri Lankan art of the last century.
Nayika (Vasantha Raga) 1943
Nayika (Vasantha Raga) is also a wonderful example of Keyt’s mastery; all the fundamentals of his genius for colour, line and form can be seen here. This work was created in 1943, a seminal year in Keyt’s oeuvre. 1943 was the year when the very first professional modernist group of artists, the Colombo ’43 Group was formed, predating the Bombay Progressives by five years.
A third painting by the artist Untitled (Couple Embracing), from the 1960s, boasts similarly illustrious provenance, having once been in the collection of Christine Spittel-Wilson, a writer and artist who grew up in Colombo and acquired an important collection of Sri Lankan Modernism -establishing herself as another early proponent of modern art.
The sale will also include a charming early work by Senaka Senanayake -Untitled (Tea Pickers) which has remained in the same private collection for 30 years. Senanayake is best known for his lush scenes of jungle fauna and flora and his art is very popular both within the country and abroad.