Expressions of Independence

The Mona Bismarck Foundation presents sixty contemporary paintings brought together by the University of Visual and Performing Arts of Colombo to greet the sixtieth anniversary of Independence of

Sri Lanka

from April 4 to July 12, 2008

Mona Bismarck Foundation
34 avenue de New York, 75116 Paris

Prageeth Rathnayake
“Human relations in a contemporary consumer society are no longer between subjects but between things. People are moving here and there dreaming of money pyramids in an endlessly greedy society.”

Image shown: Man, Pyramid with Crow

Palliyawatha Gamage Gunasena
“Man always finds that life is unsatisfactory. But the power of man’s mind is unlimited. Only a few have discovered that we all sacrifice so much for our physical and spiritual development. However, this journey is not as comfortable and enthusiastic as we wish. What I try to depict in this painting is how man overcomes this eternal struggle efficiently.”

Image shown: Struggle

Chandraguptha Thenuwara
“This triptych is inscribed with the teachings of Lord Buddha, the Dhammapada, which our Buddhist community has ignored. I therefore have them painted camouflaged. Over twenty years of ethnic conflict have allowed political, administrative and civil authorities to camouflage their wrongdoings. My goal is to highlight this camouflage and the questions hidden by these colors. These great words of the Buddha are also under camouflage, even by new authorities who claim to be guided by Buddhism.”

Image shown: Dhammapada, Triptych

Uyange Inoka De Silva
“This abstract painting composition is based on a reflection of the water surrounded by overhanging trees and greenery. The trees have been reduced to their simplest shapes and the pattern created by the trunks is silhouetted against the evening sky. Consider in depth my artistic dialogue. The idea of an aerial view makes vibrant imagery possible. The depth of field in my landscape is only an impression of color in my dream. When I remove color, I see just a grid in a plane.”

Image shown: Landscape

Indika Wijerathne
Perhaps using his painting to express emotions which he cannot articulate by other means, Wijerathne states, “I have missed something in my life, but I don’t know what it was and where it happened.”

Image shown: Rage

Gunasiri Kolambage
“I created this after seeing a fashion show. One girl was alone and she was half asleep, wrapped in colored cloths. As soon as I saw her I knew I had to do this painting. I tried to capture the colorful event and the fashionable clothes, as well as the girl’s state of mind: a trance!”

Image shown: Trance

Ananda Somathilaka
“In this painting I used a used a very free technique so that my inner feelings could pour out effortlessly. I used few colors, as well as raw canvas which can be seen as a part of the painting. The two characters depicted are lashing out, scolding and cursing one another unrelentingly. This situation arises when someone violates orthodox practices.”

Image shown: Gossip Mongers

Sampath Amunugama
“I believe that man is not the same internally as what he is externally. The man who lives externally lives superficially. Nevertheless, some have the ability to balance their exterior and interior lives, but even this can change suddenly.”

Image shown: Ambivalence

Thilanka Susil Senanayake
“My main aim is to view things in a different way, from a different angle. As a painter, I struggle on the canvas to achieve shapes and forms. In “Distorted Man”, forms suggesting the human shape have been created as a painting. The society in which I live at present has influenced me.”

Image shown: Distorted Man

Kingsley Gunatillake
“I am exhausted from painting displacement, which nevertheless has become an insoluble and haunting fact. We Sri Lankans are tormented by ethnic conflict and the bloody war of the last three decades….Even the survivors of the Tsunami catastrophe are displaced without any ethnic distinction. A similar crisis occurs in other Asian countries where children, parents, loved ones and companies are displaced from one another. My painting is a reminder and request to governments and ethnic groups to open their eyes to displaced people.”

Image shown: Displaced

Sarasvati Rockwood
“This painting depicts street urchins who are orphan boys of Tamil origin.”

Image shown: No Hope for the Future

Saman Harsha Wijesooriya
“The end product of consumerism is alienation. A life devoid of human bonds leaves much to be desired and consumerism will never fill that expanding void, for consumerism is an endless chasm and once thrust into the cycle, there is no escape.”

Image shown: Alone with Peacock

Mudiyanselage Prasanna Upali Chaminda
“In my paintings I try to depict what I see day in and day out, that is, fishermen and fishing. This painting shows three fishmongers taking fish to be sold at the market or at people’s homes. It depicts our industry and I want to show our own products and capabilities.”

Image shown: Fish Market

Chandani Senarath Yapa
“Since my childhood various themes have impressed me. As an adult I have developed a fascination for landscape painting. Most landscape paintings are fascinating and beautiful. However, I don’t go after beauty in a landscape. My intention is not the reproduction of nature as I see it with the naked eye. My aim is to interpret my response to the environment I live in. The theme of this painting is my emotional reaction to the beauty of nature – the paddy fields, hills, and so forth – which I experienced on my way from Colombo to Badulla by train.”

Image shown: Landscape

N. A. C. K. Aberatne
“He cultivated so many things for us, but we didn’t do anything for him. He thought about the future and his vision was correct. This is my culture, this is my history. I wanted to see it in my painting.”

Image shown: Former King

Sella Hennedige Sarath
“Love is a universal need.”

Image shown: Lovers

H. P. N. Chanaka
“In this composition, shapes and colors balance on canvas as visual art.”

Image shown: Shapes

Jack Kulasinghe

Image shown: Woman in Landscape

Sujith Rathnayake
This painting represents “an attempt taken to express the mental condition at the level of extreme confusion.”

Image shown: Confusion

Sanjaya Senavirathna
“Color, form, various ingredients and everything in life depicts love. It may be because I love love. I love myself, you, the picture that I draw as well as life. Through love, one can get close to anything.”

Image shown: Beauty of Love

B. Sarath Gunasiri Perera
“Though we have our own culture and tradition, people are running after consumerism and unnecessary worldly luxuries. They are devastating our natural surroundings. We all have to suffer but no one is responsible.
In this painting, I was influenced by the shape of the lotus, various types of flags, and the skeleton of modern construction to convey my feelings in an abstract manner. Blooming lotus-like shapes are the symbol of the devastating impact of modern society, Black and red pointed flags are to express my protest against this destruction.”

Image shown: Lotus

Gayan Pragee Samaranayaka
“I wanted to express how free and independent we are in the execution of our work.”

Image shown: The Studio

H. K. Wilmal Dharmarathna
“This painting depicts the Dalanda Perahera pageant. As this is a pageant held at night, it focuses on using light in its natural background. Images of elephants and ‘Nilame’ [lay officers or officiants] emerge. I have used thick paint with a palette knife instead of a paintbrush to enhance the artistic value and to achieve a better effect. Although I used a limited number of colors, the painting seems to have a lot of colors in it. I hope this adds an ornamental quality to its theme.”

Image shown: Perahera

Dulakshi Chanika Hettiarachchi
“War has come to destroy everything. I have lived in the North and East in Sri Lanka, and everything dies due to war. We can’t see any end of the war.”

Image shown: War

Dumith Kulasekara
When the symbolic world is dead, there is no longer any gender in society. This provokes an identity crisis in women, who ask “Who are we?”. Kulasekara feels that we are now leaving culture and going back to the womb.

Image shown: Here…we…are…

Kasun Vihanga Gunasekara
What Gunasekara describes as “the tragedy of contemporary Sri Lankan society” informs his artistic work. He asks how a “warlike environment” affects human behavior, and highlights constraints on freedom and independence, insecurity, instability, and the “loss of self” which occurs during a war.

Image shown: Camouflage

W. P. Teranza Sandapathi Wickramaratne
This painting depicts a landscape in the heat.

Image shown: Landscape

Kalthotage Nalaka Piyanandana
“In my point of view, all things physical and metaphysical are based on a price to sell or be sold. In this case, I’m also a person with a price…My political, economic and social condition is related to power in a sense…. Others are also trying to raise their own price.”

Image shown: Fantasy Ambition

R. M. J. C. Rathnayake
“Nature is beautiful, sometimes adamant. We are forced to admit that it is nature. What I ask you is whether you obey it. I like silent space…”.

Image shown: Silent Space and Time

Mahinda Abeysekara

Image shown: Pile Padura

Iddamalgodage Nuwan Damitha
“My painting is based on day to day life, and I focus on the emotional contemporary social environment. On my way home from university, it is getting dark in the evening. I pass the busiest street, which is very noisy and polluted. I see homeless people, but we are linked by our common humanity despite social anxiety. I want to represent in visual elements what I feel emotionally and logically, and to transform the social environment into poetry.”

Image shown: City at Night

P. S. Sanjeewa Kumara
“The picture reveals the radical ambiguity of fantasy. It is uncanny, fantastic, marvelous and supernatural, mixing various popular and unpopular historical elements, combining them as visual pastiche.The language of my visual texts is where (y)our desire is placed. My art is fun and I prefer to call my works ‘pictures’ rather than paintings. An abstract painting is rarely a picture; an abstract painting is a painting because it dwells primarily on the material and surface. But ‘picture’ implies a space one goes into.”

Image shown: Discovering the Sigiriya

Iromie Wijewardena
“The painting portrays rural life in Sri Lanka. The atmosphere of the village at the dawn of the New Year is created by the very decorative pottery and earthenware for sale. It is also derived from the traditional art which depicts a full pot called ‘Punkalas’, which symbolizes plenty and prosperity. The elongated female figure portrayed here has a youthful smile, an expression yearning for peace and prosperity.”

Image shown: New Year Sale

Seevali Illangasinghe

Image shown: Theen Kanya

Sujatha Wanamalie

Image shown: Sunflowers

Palitha Gunasinghe
“Negombo is a favourite location with its beautiful lagoons and fishing harbours. This is a scene of fishermen – hardworking, humble men and women, working for their daily bread. I am inspired by their brotherhood and cooperation, to make their miserable existence tolerable. Real life vignettes impress me when rendered in watercolor on paper. I infuse the feeling of our world, using gray colors and shadows. They also reflect the understanding and sympathy in view of man’s incessant struggle for existence.”

Image shown: Fishing Pals

H. M. P. Banda Herath
“Slums are a sight in certain part of the urban environment. Some people look upon them with revulsion because the sight is repulsive. Perhaps the reaction of some others may be different, because they understand the reality of existence. An artist is a person who is sympathetic to this reality. An artist is sensitive to aesthetics. He derives inspiration from the ugly and the beautiful. Colors are used in the painting to symbolize the inner reality of slum life.”

Image shown: Slums

B. A. Sudath Abeysekara

Image shown: Tarantula

Palitha Jayasekara
“This painting is about a modern woman. She has inherited traditional customs and formalities as well as birth, marriage and death. But the modern woman has her own strength to arise from any oppression.”

Image shown: Ability to Raise

Wickrama Arachchige Ariyasena

Image shown: Daru Nalavilla

Hettiarachchi A. Udaya Nalaka
“I wanted to do this landscape study because of the fascinating distribution of shadows in contrast to sunlight. The dark shadows are in harmony with the green foliage. This is a scene from Victoria Park in the heart of Colombo. The harmonies of greens and blues cool down the fatigue created by the noisy urban atmosphere. Yet new gates, security measures and the noisy and smoky environment of the city’s massive manmade buildings and moving vehicles contrast with the serene beauty of this bit of landscape.”

Image shown: Sunlight and Shadows

Anusha Gajaweera
This painting is a commentary on contemporary consumer life: selling, buying, consumption, reselling, supply and demand. The crow can go anywhere and can take power, while in this dichotomy the tie represents civil power, which also can go anywhere.

Image shown: Tie with Crow

Nimal Dharmasiri Mapatuna
“The tapering tree awakens a keen sense of permanence and unshakable vigor and vitality, while the ever-serene women and similar natural elements portray an extreme notion of the splendor and glory of rustic existence. Moreover, water that one could view far off in the distance reveals the pervasive nature of human benevolence and lavishness. Water, which glides and floats over stones, rocks and pebbles, embracing the settled riverbed, creates a melodious song of sweet murmurs and whispers.”

Image shown: Landscape

Thilake Abeysinghe

Image shown: Thanha, Rathee, Raga

Baratha Kumara Liyanage
“The Lord Buddha is the first person who gave the clear vision of Liberty. The word liberty gives the sense of freedom in so many ways. Removing from all the ties of life is the most important to get free. The fact helps us to walk away and finally we have to stop where nothing our willings. Simple forms and calm colors I used to give this message.”

Image shown: Liberation

A. L. D. Sirisena

Image shown: The Man

Sarath Soorasena

Image shown: Forest Invaders

Jayasiri Semage
After a dance, two dancers are resting. I want to show rhythm in a flowing style and a good composition, blending colors from this painting. I also want to show more details of their costumes, ornaments, bangles and so forth. I did not use too many colors. I give prominence to the composition and balancing of the two figures. Before I sketch on canvas, I draw many rough sketches on paper and then select the best composition, because the composition is most important.

Image shown: Relaxing

H. A. Karunaratne
“Rituals which are part of the culture have been formed so as to meet these emotional and spiritual needs. These rituals generally are beyond rational explanation. Rituals are something created and elaborated by man and are usually incorporated in a cultural pattern. The purpose of my works of art is to present a concept of visual art, derived from the imagination, which has been immersed in the rituals practiced by society and in which symbols are used to express faith, devotion, peace, and ‘inner soul’.”

Image shown: Soul Searching

Vernon Saldin

Image shown: Fish Port in Jaffa

Piyaratne Hewabatuge
“The painting draws its inspiration from a ritual tradition unique to southern Sri Lanka called ‘Bali’. It is aimed at exorcising demons from ailing people or to invoke blessings from the Gods for good health and prosperity. In the ‘Bali” ritualistic art tradition, the twelve planets are either drawn or given a human form and worshipped with offerings, accompanied by dialogue, singing and dancing that is highly theatrical in character.”

Image shown: ‘Bali’ Ritualistic Painting

Albert Dharmasiri
“The nude is not a theme but an art form. The human figure fascinates me for its complexities and possibilities as a subject. The rippling effect of the disorderly drapery contrasts with the simple-looking forms of the model. I was fascinated by the play of light on the body and the fabrics. In Sri Lanka it is extremely difficult to get a female model to pose in the nude. I am disillusioned with abstract art. It leads to a cul-de-sac. The possibilities of the human figure as a subject of painting are endless.”

Image shown: Female Nude

Susiripala Malimboda
“As a person who deeply experienced the bewilderment and the shock that the Tsunami created in the social psyche, it has been my sincere effort to translate that reality into visual language. I witnessed the sea rushing into the land in an unprecedented manner and force, devouring and devastating everything in its way, and receding into its habitual calmness. I too could witness what was left behind.”

Image shown: Discordant

Michael Anthonisz
In this painting, one of three from the same time, the artist revisits a theme from his earlier work. One feels a sense of contemplative, transient, sadness, melancholia, as the sitter contemplates some deeper emotions troubling him. Loneliness and despair heightened by a restricted palette; the contrasting highlights around the figure isolate and heighten the emotions. This sense of pathos perhaps reflects the artist’s own sensitivities to some deeper emotions that he was grappling with at that time. Is this then, in some ways, a self-portrait?

Image shown: Sorrow

H. A. W. K. Logus
“Activating life is handed over to somebody else. We feel that we have lost ourselves.”

Image shown: Pregnant Woman

A. M. Ratnapala De Silva
“Two people are uprooting a manioc plant. A woman and a boy help them. The harvest is being taken to market by bullock cart. The painting is done in the traditional style using oil colors of yellow, red, brown, black and a touch of blue.”

Image shown: Workers

Somabandu Vidyapathi

Image shown: Village Scenes

D. P. J. Jayadeva
“The painting depicts customs and practices associated with Sinhala New Year celebrations, including the Dawn of the New Year and the arrival of the New Year prince, the ‘Kokila’ bird, which also symbolizes the coming of the New Year, preparation of sweetmeats for the New Year, religious observances, respectful adults, and the application of oil upon the head at the end of the festival.”

Image shown: Sinhala New Year Festival

Stanley Kirinde
The painting is based on the Jataka story number 198 of the book Jataka or Stories of the Buddha’s Former Births. The story is about how two parrots, one of whom is Rhada, observed the bad behavior of their mistress and informed her husband.

Image shown: Rhada Jatakaya

J. A. Suneth Priya Aravindana
“My painting titled ‘The Dream’ is one of a series. In this painting I tried to find a divine woman behind my life. Though all my paintings are based on human figures, I depict them in a distorted background.”

Image shown: The Dream

Expressions of Independence
from April 4 to July 12, 2008

Mona Bismarck Foundation
34 avenue de New York, 75116 Paris
Email: info@monabismarck.org
www.monabismarck.org

Days and opening hours:
From Tuesday to Friday, 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Closed on weekends and holidays
Telephone: 01 47 23 38 88
Admission: Free
Metro: Alma-Marceau, Trocadéro
Bus: 72 – 63 – 94

Programs Coordinator: Kristina Didouan
info@monabismarck.org

Photography: Kim Powell
kphotoparis@aol.com

Scenography: Christian Roy
scenographe@monabismarck.org

Graphics: Dianne Henning
www.hostingparis.com

Press Agency : Agence Catherine Dantan
Tel: +33 (0) 1 41 34 21 70 / 72
cdantan@yahoo.fr