Tilake feted in Canada

Eminent Sri Lankan painter and sculptor Chevalier Tilake Abeysinghe made a big impact in Canada recently, when an exhibition of some of his paintings was held at Labrador Art and Culture Center, Labrador City, Newfoundland and Labrador from August 8 to 12.

On holiday in Canada to visit his daughter, who is a physician practising in Labrador City, the 77-year-old painter says he was quite unprepared for the reception awarded to him by the Canadian press and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) which gave him all Canada coverage, in a live interview.

The entire collection of painting consisted of only 20 paintings in oil on canvas and 12 of these were already with his daughter in Canada, as part of her collection of paintings. The rest were painted in a very short time in Canada, expressly for this exhibition, while the major bulk of his work, consisting of some 250 paintings and sculptures being in his private gallery in Sri Lanka.

Tilake Abeysinghe was born in Karathota near Matara in 1929. After primary education at Rahula College, Matara, he finished his college education at St. Sylvester's College, Kandy, joined the Survey Department as a draughtsman, while studying art at Government College of Fine Arts in Colombo.

His winning of competition for the Buddha Jayanthi Stamp, in 1956, brought him to the limelight in Sri Lanka and soon his talent earned him a postgraduate scholarship to the famed Academia De Belle Arte in Milan, Italy where he came under the tutelage of world famous painter Dominico Cantatore and earned the praise of no less a sculptor than Marano Marini, who was very impressed by his work.

Tilake graduated from the Academia, with distinction in both painting and sculpture. After holding his very first one man exhibition in Milan, Tilake established a highly successful atelier there.

But the call of his own country, no less accentuated by the young wife and children he had left there, was soon too great to resist and after returning to own land lost no time in establishing himself as one of the major painters and sculptors in Sri Lanka.

Seventy eight one man exhibitions and 43 years later Tilake Abeysinghe who had by then acquired numerous accolades, both local and international, including the title of Chevalier of the Order of Merit from the Government of Italy, awarded to him in recognition of his immense service to arts, proceeded to Canada just to visit his daughter, with the least idea of holding an exhibition.

His daughter Dr. Chitralekha Abeysinghe, and her architect husband Ruwan Costa, who live in Canada, already had in their residence in Labrador, a sizable art collection, the pride of place of which were of course 12 paintings of her father.

These paintings were highly appreciated and admired by Canadians who visited them and when the painter himself was in their midst, they suggested that he hold an exhibition there.

Hectic arrangements were made, a date set and Tilake undertook the task of painting eight new works expressly for this exhibition - his 79th.

The exhibition was organised by Labrador Art and Culture Center, at Labrador City whose director Ellen Turner was immensely helpful in making it a resounding success that it was.

A large number of Canadians came to see the exhibition, as a result of wide publicity in print media, namely full page articles in North 53, Labrador news magazine and Aurora, the trans-continental newspaper. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) through its hourly news bulletins and a live interview with Tilake, gave Canada wide publicity to the event throughout the exhibition.

Mike Power, senior broadcaster of CBC presented Tilake with a Compact Disk of the live interview to mark this event. The mayor of Labrador City, honoured Tilake with a presentation of a gold medel as a mark of respect and appreciation of his work.

Andrew Kelly writing a review in Aurora said of Tilake Abeysinghe: "admirers will possibly have a chance to meet this compassionate, powerful man, during the exhibition. He has devoted his life to self-expression and shared pieces of his life with the rest of the world."

Angelo de Mel

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