Saskia Fernando Gallery is deeply saddened at the passing of Dr. H. A. Karunaratne, one of Sri Lanka’s most significant modern artists, who passed away on the 21st of February at the age of 96.
Widely regarded as the Father of Abstract Art in Sri Lanka, Karunaratne’s practice reshaped the visual language of modern art in the country. Across a career spanning more than six decades, he explored the expressive potential of abstraction through an intuitive engagement with material, working across media that ranged from fabric to metal to paint to create compositions charged with rhythm, tension, and meditative stillness. His work, informed by Buddhist and Zen philosophies, bridged Sri Lankan artistic sensibilities with global modernist discourse.
Born in Kalutara in 1929, Karunaratne studied at the Government College of Fine Art in Colombo before receiving a Japanese Government Scholarship to the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, and later a Fulbright Award to the Pratt Institute in New York. Alongside his artistic practice, he was an influential teacher and mentor, serving as a lecturer at the Institute of Aesthetic Studies, University of Kelaniya, where he shaped generations of artists and expanded the understanding of abstraction within local art education.
Karunaratne’s work was exhibited extensively in Sri Lanka and internationally, including the São Paulo Biennale (1969), the Commonwealth Institute, London (1981), the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi (1981), the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, and major exhibitions across South Asia, Europe, and Japan. The artist has been represented by Saskia Fernando Gallery since 2024 and in recent years has been exhibited at Legacies, Saskia Fernando Gallery, Colombo (2026) Art Mumbai (2025) Crossing Borders: Modern Art from South Asia, PhillipsX and Grosvenor Gallery, London (2025), Pivot Glide Echo: Second Edition University of Visual and Performing Arts, Colombo (2025) and India Art Fair (2025). His contributions were recognized with numerous honours, including the ‘Kala Suri’ from the Government of Sri Lanka and the ‘Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays’ from the Government of Japan.
More than a pioneer, Dr .H.A. Karunaratne was a foundational figure whose practice opened a space for abstraction within Sri Lankan art and whose pedagogy quietly transformed its institutions. His work demonstrated that abstraction could emerge not in opposition to tradition, but from contemplation, philosophy, and lived experience. The language he forged continues to resonate in the practices of many artists working today.
Saskia Fernando Gallery extends its deepest condolences to his family, students, colleagues, and the many artists whose lives and work he influenced. His legacy remains woven into the history of modern art in Sri Lanka.
