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Serving as a homage, Legacies: H. A. Karunaratne reflects on the artist's pedagogical contributions and his enduring influence on leading contemporary artists in Sri Lanka. The exhibition brings together the works of S. H. Sarath, Rubert Soysa, Kingsley Gunatillake, Jagath Weerasinghe, Chandraguptha Thenuwara and Jagath Ravindra, artists who over the years, either as his students or via mentorship, inherited, variously, his creative philosophy.
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H A Karunaratne1929 - 2026Untitled, 2019Paper and Staples on Board64 x 102 cm
25 1/4 x 40 1/8 in -
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In the context of South Asian art history, H. A. Karunaratne's practice emerged during a period when nation-states were emerging, alongside globalisation and exposure to new modes and media of artistic expression. However, Karunaratne's practice resists easy categorisation and does not situate itself immediately within a conversation of national or international identity. Instead, his approach to abstraction was shaped by the emphasis of Zen Buddhism on producing one's essence, becoming one with the work and liberating the mind. Examining his practice against this backdrop reveals to us an artist whose practice was shaped by a discipline committed to individual creative expression, which, in hindsight, created the space where artists developed their practice independent of their mentor.
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H A Karunaratne1929 - 2026Untitled, 2016Tissue and Oil on Canvas90 x 120 cm
35 3/8 x 47 1/4 in -
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Characterised by a sense of rhythm, energy, and dissonance, Karunaratne experimented with materials ranging from tissue, wire, palmyrah, and fabric to metal over the course of six decades. Widely considered the father of abstract art in Sri Lanka, H. A. Karunaratne, through his engagement as an educator at the Institute of Aesthetic Studies (now the University of Visual and Performing Arts), resulted in a shift in arts pedagogy. He was pivotal in inspiring a generation of artists to move away from the figurative and embrace the visual grammar of abstract art. Sri Lanka’s leading abstract art practitioners, Kingsley Gunatillake, Jagath Ravindra, and Rubert Soysa continue to carry his philosophy and methods into their practice.
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H A Karunaratne
1929 - 2026
Untitled, 2019Mixed Media on Board61.5 x 100 cm -
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Rubert Soysab.1948Journey, 2016Newspaper, Corrugated Board, Fabric, and Oil on Canvas153 x 245 cm
60 1/4 x 96 1/2 inWorking with corrugated board, newspaper, and fabric, Rubert Soysa’s Journey merges figuration and abstraction into a textured composition filled with movement. The work reflects the emotional weight carried through the passage of human life, tracing a journey across time. -
The works by these artists invite us to reevaluate the evolution of abstract art in a regional context that borrowed profusely from cultural encounters, not just in Europe and America, but also in East Asia, as a language rooted in the emotional, cultural, and experiential - with a sensibility that wants to be read in the contexts within which they were created.While H. A. Karunaratne resisted defining his practice, context became particularly essential to the creative process in the socio-cultural environment following the onset of the civil war on the island. Thenuwara's pointed commentary on the increase in militarisation of public spaces, and Weerasinghe's psychological crisis in the wake of the civil war, informed the art world of the unfolding crisis in Sri Lanka and shaped a generation of younger artists who were encouraged to think through the political realities of their time. Among the earliest to respond to the unfolding crisis in Sri Lanka through satire, S. H. Sarath remained on the periphery of the conversation. He moved between social and environmental issues, while also finding inspiration in the erotic and the religious alike, while retaining an association with the folk that foregrounded his engagement, visually and conceptually.
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In bringing these six artists in conversation with H. A. Karunaratne, the exhibition hopes to hold the spaces within which the pursuit of art continues to persist, even when they do not conform to the conventional categorisations determined by the contemporary art ecosystem. Instead, in asserting the distinct, individual streams of expression across a generation of artists Karunaratne inspired, the presentation acknowledges his vital presence in Sri Lanka’s dynamic visual landscape and its evolving currents - broadening the scope for our engagement with contemporary art.
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Chandraguptha Thenuwarab.1960BLINDS: This Is Not A Pollock, 2021Mixed Media on Aluminium92 x 153 cm
36 1/4 x 60 1/4 inEmploying the green, red, and yellow of the Sri Lankan national flag in a manner reminiscent of Abstract Expressionist Jackson Pollock, Chandraguptha Thenuwara’s This Is Not a Pollock offers a wry commentary on the ideas of nationalism that continued to shape people's imagination in post civil war Sri Lanka. Through the metaphor of window blinds that partially obscure the view, the work invites viewers to read between the lines, questioning constructed socio-political truths while suggesting the possibility of hope beyond what is immediately visible. -
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Jagath Ravindra approaches the canvas as a field where a thought or feeling, matured through prolonged contemplation, materialises itself as a harmonic explosion. Colour is absolute to his practice - mediated through conscious and unconscious processes, it is the language through which the artist arrives at liberation. Kingsley Gunatillake expanded on his Guru, Karunaratne’s approach to making the image on the canvas tactile through metal, where its malleable properties reenvision the calligraphic stroke. Having maintained the longest and closest association with the artist, Kingsley Gunatillake embraced Karunaratne’s engagement with Japanese visual culture, adopting the expressive linearity of Japanese ink paintings into his practice. Rubert Soysa’s practice centres the experience of an image, and the multitude of emotions that can be felt and lived in the moment of encounter. Soysa leaned into the visuality of cubism and combined it with the textural possibilities offered by corrugated boards and fabric. While his approach to abstraction is rooted in distilling a form into its multiple planes, he unifies the image through movement filled with emotional gravitas.
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Jagath Ravindrab.1963Metaphors of the Soul XVIII, 2026Acrylic on Canvas152 x 244 cm
59 7/8 x 96 inMetaphors of the Soul is Jagath Ravindra’s exploration of ephemerality and transience. In this body of work, the ever-flowing nature of human emotion becomes the artist’s central muse. Drawing a parallel to a river that begins in clarity and is gradually altered as it moves through time, each work preserves a moment within this emotional current, revealing layers of memory, erosion, and renewal that speak to the transient nature of our inner states. What remains on the canvas is the residue of emotion, traces formed through the artist’s prolonged and intuitive engagement with the surface.
LEGACIES: H. A. KARUNARATNE
Current viewing_room
