SENAKA SENANAYAKE | Untitled

Acquired directly from the artist by a private Indian collector, 2012-13
Acquired from the above, 2018

There is a small tear and indentation to the canvas at the upper centre of the painting. Pinhole-sized accretions and stains are visible throughout. Small spots of mottling due to damp are present mainly in the upper right corner. This work has not been inspected outside its frame.
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Senaka Senanayake is one of Sri Lanka’s most renowned artists. He has over a hundred solo shows to his name and has been included in numerous group exhibitions across the world, in prominent locations such as New York, London, Canberra, Osaka and Rome. Senanayake’s first ever solo exhibition was in 1959, when he was only seven years old. A few years later, he achieved international acclaim when he held his first one-man exhibition in New York at the Asia House Art Gallery, aged only ten. After several years as a self-taught artist, Senanayake went on to receive his formal training from Yale University graduating in Art and Architecture. Senanayake is particularly known for his ability to capture the colours and essence of Sri Lanka’s landscape and fauna. In the present work, Senanayake has shifted away from painting wildlife and women, to focus on the elegant lines and curves of Sri Lankan flora. Here, his aesthetic inspiration is drawn from tropical banana groves. Warm sunlight shines through the banana leaves, the pristine forms of which recall the mid-twentieth century enlarged flower paintings of American modernist, Georgia O’Keeffe. Senanayake's line has softened in accordance with his later stylistic choices, but his signature bold colour palette remains the same. Colour has and continues to hold a deep significance in Senanayake’s art, being used to express the life, strength, and beauty of his native land.