Lot 59 | 29 May 2022

 

 

LOT 59

GEORGE KEYT

B. Sri Lanka, 1901 – 1993

Girl with Flowers, 1982

Signed and dated “G Keyt 82” on the upper right

Gouache on card

63 x 37 cm

Private Collection, USA

RM 12,000 – RM 22,000

George Keyt was a Sri Lankan artist, born in Kandy, to a Sinhalese – Dutch family on April 17, 1902. He was also a poet, known for his vibrant-coloured, Cubist-like figure paintings. Keyt’s artworks are a beautiful matrimony of the Sri Lankan life, calligraphic lines of Henri Matisse, and forms he found in ancient Buddhist and Hindu sculptures, producing a wholly unique style. Keyt was strongly influenced by cubist experiments in perspective, and applied them in a way that was distinctly his own, drawing specifically from Indian artistic traditions. His subjects enlarged, embodied almond-shaped eyes, paired with bold, crisp, heavy lines and expressive grandeur became the defining formal features of his work. This is seen in ‘Seated Nude with Flowers, 1982’.