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拍品专文
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 imbued 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 colours 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.
The present lot, Untitled (Recumbant Woman), was painted in 1944 and may be read using Keyt’s ‘first way’ of seeing. The woman’s form is immediately recognisable and her serene face with its sweet smile is not hindered by any fragmentation. She remains blissfully unaware of the viewer’s access to her private world as she reclines, wistfully gazing into the distance. Keyt introduces his ‘second way’ of seeing in her garments and surroundings. Her body merges with the still life and pillows around her, draped beneath rhythmic linear layers that impart fluidity. Finally, he reunites the simple and the complex through his ‘third way’ of seeing, restoring harmony by anchoring the composition with the naturalism of the distant landscape. Heightening the sense of naturalism through the landscape in the background, Keyt heals the layers that he has created. In this final mode, Keyt attains a sense of revelation, where “things are suddenly presented through an unaccountable wonderment, as if the objects, however common place, did never exist before” (Artist statement, Ibid., 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 colours 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.
The present lot, Untitled (Recumbant Woman), was painted in 1944 and may be read using Keyt’s ‘first way’ of seeing. The woman’s form is immediately recognisable and her serene face with its sweet smile is not hindered by any fragmentation. She remains blissfully unaware of the viewer’s access to her private world as she reclines, wistfully gazing into the distance. Keyt introduces his ‘second way’ of seeing in her garments and surroundings. Her body merges with the still life and pillows around her, draped beneath rhythmic linear layers that impart fluidity. Finally, he reunites the simple and the complex through his ‘third way’ of seeing, restoring harmony by anchoring the composition with the naturalism of the distant landscape. Heightening the sense of naturalism through the landscape in the background, Keyt heals the layers that he has created. In this final mode, Keyt attains a sense of revelation, where “things are suddenly presented through an unaccountable wonderment, as if the objects, however common place, did never exist before” (Artist statement, Ibid., p. 117).