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Lot Essay
From a Western perspective, George Keyt’s work from the 1930s onwards is often described in the context of Cubism or Fauvism and compared with the oeuvres of Paul Gauguin, Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso or Henri Matisse. However, the sensuality and spirituality Keyt always imbibed in his drawings and paintings underscores their enduring connection with the classical artistic traditions of South Asia, from ancient frescoes and temple sculpture to Rajput court paintings and Kalighat patas. Grounded in these traditions, Keyt’s work rejected the limitations of Western academic art to embrace what we now term global modernism, paving the way for other artists in South Asia to forge new idioms of their own as well as a new artistic identity for the region.
Writing about the ‘ways of seeing’ that he believed vital to the creation of any artwork, Keyt noted, “The painter sees things in three ways. The first way is identical to the way in which the layman sees things. What is seen is taken for granted. But the painter sees again, and this is the second way; and after that he sees again, and this is the third way. The last way of seeing is a falling to normality again where the activity in a state of trance is absent and replaced by a state of dispassionate objectivity where the result of the second way of seeing is contemplated” (Artist statement, “The Vision of the Painter”, Kesari People’s Weekly, 25 June 1941, in George Keyt: A Centennial Anthology, Colombo, 2001, p. 117).
Interestingly, these three steps in the creative process Keyt describes also provide different lenses through which the viewer can perceive and experience a work of art. The first lens in which colors and forms communicate the subject simply and directly, the second where they are deconstructed and made complex, and the third in which complete fragmentation is healed and replaced with a holistic sense of composure despite the extreme effects of visual transformation.
Lot 504, Untitled (Woman in Green), can be understood using Keyt’s first way of seeing. The demure subject is draped in a diaphanous green dupatta or scarf. Although her face is portrayed from two slightly different angles, it is not distorted in any way. The artist portrays her graceful form in a way that even the slight fragmentation of her figure does not impact her beauty. She should be seen as she is at first glance.
The transformation which occurs in the second way of seeing is clear in lot 533, Untitled (Seated Nude), and lot 503, Untitled (Nude). Both created in the 1940s, these works address the same subject; however, the former maintains a sense of realism through the way the curves of the subject’s form can be discerned through Keyt’s use of light which reveals a vivacious and toned body. A similar body is completely deconstructed in the latter, a rare work on paper, where the subject’s features must be interpreted from the layers of lines and geometric forms that Keyt employs. The figure is made into an object requiring analysis. It is complex and profound.
In the third way of seeing, the simple and the complex are brought together in order to create an extraordinary reality. The landscape of lot 532, Untitled (Woman in front of Hut), is highly fragmented revealing the extent of Keyt’s break from traditional styles. In this way of seeing, “things are suddenly presented through an unaccountable wonderment, as if the objects, however common place, did never exist before” (Artist statement, Ibid., Colombo, 2001, p. 117).
Writing about the ‘ways of seeing’ that he believed vital to the creation of any artwork, Keyt noted, “The painter sees things in three ways. The first way is identical to the way in which the layman sees things. What is seen is taken for granted. But the painter sees again, and this is the second way; and after that he sees again, and this is the third way. The last way of seeing is a falling to normality again where the activity in a state of trance is absent and replaced by a state of dispassionate objectivity where the result of the second way of seeing is contemplated” (Artist statement, “The Vision of the Painter”, Kesari People’s Weekly, 25 June 1941, in George Keyt: A Centennial Anthology, Colombo, 2001, p. 117).
Interestingly, these three steps in the creative process Keyt describes also provide different lenses through which the viewer can perceive and experience a work of art. The first lens in which colors and forms communicate the subject simply and directly, the second where they are deconstructed and made complex, and the third in which complete fragmentation is healed and replaced with a holistic sense of composure despite the extreme effects of visual transformation.
Lot 504, Untitled (Woman in Green), can be understood using Keyt’s first way of seeing. The demure subject is draped in a diaphanous green dupatta or scarf. Although her face is portrayed from two slightly different angles, it is not distorted in any way. The artist portrays her graceful form in a way that even the slight fragmentation of her figure does not impact her beauty. She should be seen as she is at first glance.
The transformation which occurs in the second way of seeing is clear in lot 533, Untitled (Seated Nude), and lot 503, Untitled (Nude). Both created in the 1940s, these works address the same subject; however, the former maintains a sense of realism through the way the curves of the subject’s form can be discerned through Keyt’s use of light which reveals a vivacious and toned body. A similar body is completely deconstructed in the latter, a rare work on paper, where the subject’s features must be interpreted from the layers of lines and geometric forms that Keyt employs. The figure is made into an object requiring analysis. It is complex and profound.
In the third way of seeing, the simple and the complex are brought together in order to create an extraordinary reality. The landscape of lot 532, Untitled (Woman in front of Hut), is highly fragmented revealing the extent of Keyt’s break from traditional styles. In this way of seeing, “things are suddenly presented through an unaccountable wonderment, as if the objects, however common place, did never exist before” (Artist statement, Ibid., Colombo, 2001, p. 117).