Protest art at its best
R. S. Karunaratne
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UNTITLED: Painting that defies definition.
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ART: Colvin Settinayake will hold an exhibition of his latest
paintings at the National Art Gallery, Colombo 7 from April 21-24. The
exhibition will be opened on April 21 at 4.30 p.m. Premasiri Khemadasa
and Tissa Abeysekera will be the chief guests on this occasion.
Colvin Settinayake is a self-made artist who has graduated from the
'University of Life' like many celebrated painters in the world. When
you do not have a teacher or guide, you tend to experiment and rely on
trial and error methods Colvin did just that for many years in different
fields including newspapers.
Humanism
Even when he draws something on a piece of paper or cloth, what comes
to the surface is his humanism. His lines and brush work depict
everything human beings experience: love, frustration, compassion,
hatred, loving kindness and patience.
Experience
After years of experience, Colvin has emerged as one of the leading
creative protest artists in Sri Lanka. He treats the canvas as a battle
ground for his conflicting ideas.
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IMPRESSION: Artist Tissa Hewa witarana’s impression of Colvin
Settinayake.
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This he does beautifully with screaming and jarring images which
speak volumes. He is definitely not cut out to entertain the viewer. His
paintings disturb us giving a new meaning to problems of life.
He has been holding exhibitions since 1974. In fact, his first
exhibition of paintings was held at the Samudra Art Gallery in Colombo
way back in 1974 with Mahagama Sekara as the chief guest. Panditha W. D.
Amaradeva opened his second exhibition at the same venue in 1976.
Kalakeerthi Edwin Ariyadasa opened his third exhibition at the Lionel
Wendt Art Gallery in 1981.
Seven years later Prof. J. B. Disanayaka opened his fourth exhibition
at the same venue. Prof. E. R. Sarachchandra Somabandu Vidyapathy and
Sybil Wettasinghe were the chief guests at his fifth exhibition opened
at the Lionel Wendt in 1994. He held his next exhibition in Singapore in
2002.
Most of his paintings go untitled. Sometimes he himself finds it
difficult to give a title to a particular painting because of its rich
emotions.
Art lovers will, no doubt, study and appreciate his paintings for
they are something different and fresh. Protest or not they are
beautiful paintings turned out by an artist who is down to earth and
publicity shy. |
