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Lot Essay
Lauding George Keyt’s paintings, the art historian W.G. Archer once remarked, “Keyt is the living nucleus of a great painter. In all his works, there is the moderation of maturity. Magically though he places his colours, and carefully though he distributes plastic volumes, Keyt’s pictures nevertheless produce a dramatic effect. These figures take on a strange expressive grandeur and radiate an aura of intensely profound feeling” (W.G. Archer, India and Modern Art, London, 1959, p. 124).
From a Western perspective, Keyt’s work from the mid-1930s onwards is often described in the context of Cubism or Fauvism and compared with the oeuvres of Paul Gauguin, Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso or Henri Matisse. However, the sensuality and spirituality Keyt always imbibed in his drawings and paintings underscores their enduring connection with the classical artistic traditions of South Asia, from ancient frescoes and temple sculpture to Rajput court paintings and Kalighat patas. Grounded in these traditions, Keyt’s work rejected the limitations of Western academic art to embrace what we now term global modernism, paving the way for other artists in South Asia to forge new idioms of their own as well as a new artistic identity for the region.
In the present lot, the artist has used bold geometric forms and calligraphic lines to achieve a “highly personal curvilinear rhythm, contrasting graceful movements, delineation of round and flat forms on the same picture plane and a feeling of highly intense sensuality” (L.P. Sihare, 'Keyt - Asian Painter', George Keyt, A Centennial Anthology, Colombo, 2001, p. 31). Drawing from and perhaps conflating different South Asian mythological sources, Keyt portrays what seems to be the parting of a family group in this large format painting. A woman, with her back to the viewer, fondly cradles the face of a man who appears to be her husband, while their young daughter holds on to his side. The man, dressed in the simple clothes of a Hindu sage, appears to be leaving his family and setting out from his home on some sort of ascetic journey. Likely inspired by tales of renunciation and exile, this painting touches on themes of love and duty, and the frequent conflicts between them.
Writing about Keyt’s work, Chilean poet Pablo Neruda noted, “Magically though he places his colors, and carefully though he distributes his plastic volumes, Keyt’s pictures nevertheless produce a dramatic effect, particularly in his paintings of Sinhalese people. These figures take on a strange expressive grandeur, and radiate an aura of intensely profound feeling” (W.G. Archer, India and Modern Art, London, 1959, p. 124).
From a Western perspective, Keyt’s work from the mid-1930s onwards is often described in the context of Cubism or Fauvism and compared with the oeuvres of Paul Gauguin, Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso or Henri Matisse. However, the sensuality and spirituality Keyt always imbibed in his drawings and paintings underscores their enduring connection with the classical artistic traditions of South Asia, from ancient frescoes and temple sculpture to Rajput court paintings and Kalighat patas. Grounded in these traditions, Keyt’s work rejected the limitations of Western academic art to embrace what we now term global modernism, paving the way for other artists in South Asia to forge new idioms of their own as well as a new artistic identity for the region.
In the present lot, the artist has used bold geometric forms and calligraphic lines to achieve a “highly personal curvilinear rhythm, contrasting graceful movements, delineation of round and flat forms on the same picture plane and a feeling of highly intense sensuality” (L.P. Sihare, 'Keyt - Asian Painter', George Keyt, A Centennial Anthology, Colombo, 2001, p. 31). Drawing from and perhaps conflating different South Asian mythological sources, Keyt portrays what seems to be the parting of a family group in this large format painting. A woman, with her back to the viewer, fondly cradles the face of a man who appears to be her husband, while their young daughter holds on to his side. The man, dressed in the simple clothes of a Hindu sage, appears to be leaving his family and setting out from his home on some sort of ascetic journey. Likely inspired by tales of renunciation and exile, this painting touches on themes of love and duty, and the frequent conflicts between them.
Writing about Keyt’s work, Chilean poet Pablo Neruda noted, “Magically though he places his colors, and carefully though he distributes his plastic volumes, Keyt’s pictures nevertheless produce a dramatic effect, particularly in his paintings of Sinhalese people. These figures take on a strange expressive grandeur, and radiate an aura of intensely profound feeling” (W.G. Archer, India and Modern Art, London, 1959, p. 124).