Life and works of Sybil Wettasinghe

Nethra Samarawickrema

‘Sybil: Art of Sybil Wettasinghe,’ an exhibition at Theerta Red Dot Gallery is a retrospective voyage for the art lovers, on the work of artist, author and illustrator, Sybil Wettasinghe. Over her 60-year long career, Wettasinghe’s artistic output has encapsulated a variety of mediums ranging from book illustrations and children’s novels to newspaper sketches and batik prints.

Wettasinghe undertook her first major artistic assignment at the age of 15 when she illustrated the Nava Maga Standard 5 Reader, the first book to be printed in colour in Sri Lanka.

In 1948, after completing her SSC examinations, Wettasinghe joined the Lankadeepa as a graphic artist and proceeded to illustrate stories for the Times, Silumina, Sarasaviya, Daily News and Janatha newspapers. In 1952, she made her first attempt at storytelling through her juvenile novel Kuda Hora which gained popularity overnight. Since then, this book has captivated the imagination of several generations of Lankan children and acquired a wide international readership upon being translated into seven languages.

A prolific writer as well as an illustrator, Wettasinghe has produced over 200 books over the course of her career.

Wettasighe’s newspaper illustrations and children’s books are characterized primarily by their idealization of rural Sri Lanka. Mired in folk culture, her stories frequently invoke the imagery, festivities and rituals that form an integral part of village life.

However, Wettasinghe’s work does not overlook the culture and lifestyles of the urban elite. On the contrary, much of her art explores the terrain between urban/rural polarities.

In doing so, she often romanticizes the rural and caricatures the urban. If her books Kuda Hora, Vesak Kuduwa and Magul Gedara Bath Netho sensitively capture the intimacy of village life, its everyday rhythms, traditions and archetypal characters, her adult novels Kusumalatha and Rasawathi provide a satirical critique of the foibles, habits and social graces of Colombo’s ‘high-society’ women. This tension between folk and elite culture, village and city dwelling is one that Wettasinghe has had to confront in her own life.

Until the age of six, she lived in Gintota, a village close to Galle town, and later moved to Colombo to pursue an English education.

Alienated in the unfamiliar environs of the city, Wettasinghe turned to her art as a way of keeping alive her memories of Gintota. As she approached adulthood, her practice of drawing evolved into a serious art form, which continued to give her an outlet to revisit and re-create the world of her childhood.

On July 25 Theertha Red Dot Gallery launched the exhibition ‘Sybil: Art of Sybil Wettasinghe,’ which will be open to the public until August 12. This exhibition features selected works from Wettasinghe’s original line drawings, newspaper illustrations and books including Kuda Hora, Runaway Beard, Andare, Mahadenamutta, Podda Saha Poddi, Rasawathi and Hoity the Fox.

As part of this venture to honour the lifework of this distinctive artist, Theertha will also produce a catalog containing a biographic sketch and a pictorial overview of Wettasinghe’s art.

The writer is an art researcher for the exhibition. She holds BA from Ithaca College,

New York State, USA.

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