LOT 67
GEORGE KEYT
B. Sri Lanka, 1901 – 1993
Seated Nude, 1982
Gouache on card
63 x 37 cm
Private Collection, Singapore
Signed and dated “G.Keyt ‘82” on lower left
RM 8,000 – 12,000
George Keyt didn’t start painting until he was 26, but he quickly went on to become an international giant of Modern art and arguably Sri Lanka’s most celebrated 20th Century artist. His unique visual idiom combines European Modernist innovations with the ancient South Asian fresco techniques found at Ajanta and Sigiriya. Despite his clear admiration for cubist and fauvist principles, his subject matter was almost always rooted in local tradition, depicting dancers, shepherdesses and gods, often drawn from Hindu and Buddhist mythology.