Lot 60 | 29 May 2022

 

 

LOT 60

GEORGE KEYT

B. Sri Lanka, 1901 – 1993

Seated Nude, 1982

Signed and dated “G Keyt 82” on lower left

Gouache on card

63 x 37 cm

Private Collection, USA

RM 12,000 – RM 22,000

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. Desipite 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.