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Senaka

Senanayake

He  Paints  Happy  Pictures

Senaka  Senanayake

Perhaps not more than once in many decades a talent so rare as to be constantly appealing comes to the forefront in the world of art. Such is the talent of Senaka Senanayake.

Senaka Senanayake B.A. (Hons-Fine Arts) Yale Univercity USA (Born 20th March 1951) is an internationally known painter and sculptor from Sri Lanka.

Since his first exhibition, his paintings have been continually exhibited on invitation from recognised art institutions and he has held over 100 one man shows.

Places where his works are displayed include, the United Nations Building in New York; The White House; National Geographic Buildings, Washington DC; the FAO Headquarters, Rome; the International Post Office, Berne; the Lodge in Canberra; the National Panasonic Headquarters, Osaka; the Berlin State Museum; the Norfolk Museum and in several art institutions and private collections abroad.

In Sri Lanka, his paintings adorn the new Parliament Buildings; The President's House and major public buildings such as the Central Bank, the Peoples Bank, the Bank of Ceylon and many major hotels.

Graduating from Yale Univercity in 1972 he returned to Sri Lanka to continue painting . His creative impulses owe their origin to Buddhist legend and tradition and the beauty of the flora and fauna of his motherland.

Senaka was awarded an Oscar as one of the ten outstanding young people of the world by Jaycee International in 1983 for his contribution to advancement of Art in his country and the world.

Senaka  Senanayake

The vivid hues, lustrous moods and the vibrancy of the topics are captured by Senaka Senanayaka, the most renowned artist in Sri Lanka.

Painting since the age of 10 Senaka's works have been collected by connossieurs, Institutions and collectors all over the world. A large mural adorns the foyer of the U.N. headquarters in New York.

The facets of art change with political events. Concepts and communications are important. In the world of dark depressing events Senaka chooses to paint a happy idyel. His bubbling personality and his joie de vivre is obvious in his large arresting tropicscapes. He picks the naive approach and joyous colours and forms creating a montage of the flora, fauna and people of South Asia.

Senaka  Senanayake

Senaka Senanayake was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1951. He is Sri Lanka's premier International artist with over 103 one-man exhibitions in London, Paris, New York, Tokyo, Moscow, Berlin, Singapore, Bangkok, Sydney, etc. Recognised as a child prodigy, Senaka has enjoyed a reputation as one of Sri Lanka's leading artists since his early childhood. A Paris art critic remarked many years ago: "Senaka is not a supported prodigy but an authentic painter because he cannot be linked to a particular aspect of Sri Lanka - he seems to get inspiration not only from the ancient forms of traditional Buddhist art but also from the luxuriant natural beauty that surrounds him."

Senaka has assimilated the Sri Lankan scene and has been celebrating it in his work- the green fields, the lush vegetation, the flora and fauna, the fisher folk, tea pickers and Buddhist monks: all have been brought to life with his brush. He works in oil, water colours and mixed media. Senaka's prolific output displays an extraordinary fertility; it also remains constantly personal in style. His love for pure colour is carried to a daring pitch as he almost instinctively pumps life into every corner of his painting.

A graduate from Yale University, his paintings adorn many prestigious buildings and museums around the world. The United Nations Headquarters New York, F.A.O. Rome, International Post Office Berne Switzerland, Virginia State Museum, Hirchorn Museum, Lidice Museum to name a few. His paintings have been reproduced and feature articles in leading journals and magazines worldwide. There is no doubt his art has been a great source of joy to many in many lands.

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Mr. Senaka Senanayake
15, Albert Crescent,
Colombo 07
Sri Lanka

Telephone : +94 (0)11 2693447

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Senaka  Senanayake

Born in Sri Lanka

Qualification :

1968 Scholarship to Yale University (USA), Bachelor of Fine Arts

Main Exhibitions :

1961 Yonkers, New York (sponsored by UNESCO)

1965 Asia House, New York & Washington Gallery of Art

1965 Upper Grosvenor Gallery, London

1966 One Man Show ,Paris, at invitation of French Ministry of Culture

1967 One man Shows , Czechoslovakia. Berlin, at invitation of Berlin Senate

1969 Canada

1970 "Ceylon through the Ages", National Geographic Society, Washington

1974 "Eight Foremost Artists in Ceylon", Commonwealth Institute of London

1978 Contributed to a travelling Smithsonian exhibition, USA.

1982 Sharika Art Gallery inaugral exhibition, Sri Lanka

1989 National Art Gallery, Beijing at invitation of Chinese Government

1961-2002 over 110 One man shows in USA,Germany, Holland, Belgium, Taiwan, UK, Australia, Czechoslovakia, India , Ghana, Italy, France, Philippines, Egypt, Canada, Sri Lanka, Japan, Taiwan China, Thailand & Singapore.

1996 100th exhibition at National Convention Centre, Colombo (Sri Lanka)

1998 Auction at Sotheby's & Christie's, London

Awards & Credits :

Commisioned by President of Sri Lanka to paint murals for the new Parliament, 1981.

Oscar Award for being among 10 most outstanding Art persons in the world, Jaycees International

Commissioned by Sri Lanka Tea Board to paint murals & paintings for London showroom.

Collections :

White House, Washington

United Nations Building, NewYork

National Geographic Headquarters, Washington

Berlin State Museum

President's house, Parliament Bulidings and major public buildings, Sri Lanka.

International Post Office, Berne(Switzerland).

National Panasonic Headquarters, Osaka (Japan).

World Films & TV :

MGM : "World of Art"

MGM : "Artist from Ceylon"

British Movieton News : "Prodigy with a Paintbrush"

News of the Day : "Ceylon's Boy Artist"

BBC TV London

WTTG TV Washington

News of the Day : "London Exhibition, Young Genius".

MGM : Senaka at Asia House New York

Senaka Senanayake does his bit for peace Brushing away sadness, negativity
By Thiruni Kelegama

His works are not simplistic as presented to the viewer. Deeply implied within them is his credo. He knows so. The tradition of Sri Lanka with its crafts oriented industry and the ancient mural traditions all have their bearings on the works of Senaka. He juxtaposes light and dark shades to enhance his own style and personal technique.

"My technique primarily consists of circular or oval areas of light and darkness. It has the quality of imparting movements, making the work style organic." he says. The circular style he has developed, has evolved for three reasons : it creates movement, it creates dimension and it shows the continuous motion of life.

"I have experimented with many different styles and done many kinds of diverse paintings. The revolutionary themes, the story of Buddha's life, abstract, and environmental issues are some of the issues I dealt with." Talking about the exhibitions he held in November, 2002 in India Senaka says, "This time I decided to draw from my imagination. I focussed mainly on the idea of peace, and a whole new prosperous world. I wanted people to get away from the sadness surrounding us and to get away from the negativity which is a main part of our lives.

"The main piece of that exhibition was a painting which was in three parts. It was a continuation, and I drew a pond full of lotuses," says Senaka pointing at a photograph of the picture. "I focused on the lotuses because, they are an essential part of Buddhism, and I am focusing on Buddhism here. I am also talking about peace and how it must become an integral part of our lives."

To have found a place of honour in the Delegates Lounge of the United Nations General Assembly in the capacity of a child artist to paint the mural there alongside two major Modern artists, one can safely say that Senaka was born with a brush in his hands.

Having recently exhibited in India, Senaka certainly has proved that he is an artist in a class of his own. "I have exhibited in India, as a child artist way back in 1966 and it certainly was a pleasure to exhibit there again."

The exhibitions, which were sponsored by Apollo Educational and Research Foundation, were held in Chennai at the Senate House and in Delhi at the India Habitat Centre. "The exhibition in Chennai was beautifully done. It was held in the evening and since it was an open air exhibition the streets in the area were lit up. A single lamp lit up each of the paintings, and just before the opening. I released two white doves hoping for continuous peace in Sri Lanka."

"For this exhibition, I focused mainly on positive themes. I used themes from nature, and tried to portray life in the simplest manner possible. I wanted people to try to forget all the misery around them, and focus on the simple joys in life. I wanted them to feel as if they were in another world. I hope I was successful in achieving this, said Senaka. Another picture was a painting titled "Pinna Patha". Though the presence of Buddha is not directly felt, Senaka has managed to create a spiritual ambiance that is meditated and represented by a group of monks with a female devotee interceding with utmost reverence. This dimension of sanctity and hallowedness is reinforced by the stupa in the background. "The sanctity has been enhanced with the white transparent bubbles within which the heads are contained instead of the usual halo. I think the bubbles tend to highlight and strengthen the main protagonists,"explains Senaka.

This technique of his is visible in every painting of his in this exhibition. The factor tends to reinforce Senaka's philosophy wherein every life on this earth is precious and should not be mindlessly destroyed. It is also obvious that Senaka is at home with peace and harmony loving creatures that inhabit the earth. And every brush stroke is caressed in a way that bespeaks of the joy and happiness that animates his creations, making it possible for the viewer to share his experience.

So how did he feel about returning to India after all these years? "I am delighted with the response I got from the Indians. They really appreciate art, and I am not only talking about connoisseurs. I am talking about students, and people from all walks of life. They are very supportive and their attitude is encouraging," he says smiling.

The Boy-Artist 40 Years On

It was in 1962 that the celebrated British critic Sir Herbert Reed said, "This is an amazing case of artistic precocity. There have been a few similar cases in the past but very rare in the history of Art." He was referring to the work of an 11-year-old from Colombo, Senaka Senanayake, who was kin to the Senanayakes, who were Prime Ministers of Ceylon. Senaka's mother and great-grandmother were painters, but what the boy-painter began to create at the age of seven, after rebelling against group mural paintings in class, was something that was to stun them. The completely untrained boy began to produce canvas after canvas of all sizes, each more eye-catching than the other. Despite their enthusiastic encouragement, the family did not seek to present him to a wider audience till one day, they invited L. P. Goonetilleke, then the leading art critic in the Island, to take a look at their son's work. L. P., when he later met me, could only describe the work as "astonishing", this work of a boy who every afternoon spent hours painting a boy's eye view of every facet of "this Island in the Sun" before rushing off to play cricket - which, like everyone in the wider Senanayake family, he appeared to be as adept at, and in later years did moderately well at.

I was at the time editing The Times of Ceylon Annual, the Island's leading glossy publication, which focussed on heritage, the arts, and people and places. It was in it in 1962 that Senaka Senanayake got his first major spread in Ceylon, two of the pictures that accompanied it, the young boy as an artist and one of his paintings at 10, appearing here today.

By the time that spread appeared, Senaka had exhibited in the San Diego Art Gallery and in Yonkers in New York City, where professors from Brooklyn's famed art school, Pratt Institute, had said, "Senaka shows a rare maturity... his work appears done by a highly trained artist". He was in the next year or so to go on to exhibit in Canada, Britain, Holland, France and Germany - and has since held over 100 exhibitions all over the world.

Looking at his work over the next five or six years, I saw in it influences of Manet and Monet, Van Gogh and Gaugin and Picasso and, closer home, George Keyt and Jamini Roy. Yet all he'd seen was reproductions in books and magazines of their work. From flipping through those pages, pausing a minute here, a minute there, he created his own style, sometimes a repetitive one easily recognised, occasionally something completely new making you wonder whether it was really a Senaka Senanayake. He then went to Yale, I move on and, in those circumstances, lost track of him.

After seeing Senaka's latest work, I searched for L.P.'s article I had published 40 years ago and found the concluding words I had vaguely remembered. L.P. had written, "Young Senaka has a prolific outfit. The great problem at this stage of a child's progress is obviously to be able to see that the original freshness is not lost as the intellectual side of painting inevitably appears. How far he will go, and with what results in terms of the creative expression of his genius, the future alone will reveal. But we are without courage, without freedom, without passion and joy if we fail to follow the lyricism and brilliance of his brush. Colours were never so pure, so positive, so pleasing." How far Senaka has gone, has he become a great artist, it is for the critics to say. Sadly, L.P. is no longer around to answer those questions, but he'll no doubt be happy to hear that to me the colours still remain so pleasing, so vibrant. And that he now offers pastel shades too.

- S. Muthiah

Blend  of  Modernity  and  Tradition

Artist Senaka Senanayake's works reflect the unique cultural ethos of his native Sri Lanka. His deployment of forms are extremes, from light and airy to weighty and earthy.

To be credited with a little more than 100 exhibitions at a comparatively young age of 51, to find a place of honour in the Delegates Lounge of the United Nations General Assembly in the capacity of a child artist to paint the mural there alongside the executed works of two major modern artists, to be born with a golden brush in hand, to have genes filtered from three generation of artists in a family and to be affluent and politically affiliated... it is no surprise then that Senaka Senanayake, an internationally acclaimed artist, has his credentials established within the art circuit.

A progressive minded teacher at school served as a catalyst for young prodigy on his artistic journey. Says Senaka, who was born in Colombo on March 20, 1951, "After a history or geography class, she would pin large sheets of brown paper on the wall and the children were required to draw images of various animals or tribes of a particular continent."

It was this nature of community work in school that left a deep impression on his mind. Termed 'precocious' by many leading art critics in Colombo, he held his first art show in the city when he was seven years of age. After his schooling in Sri Lanka, Senaka went to Yale (U.S.A.) to study art, where the structured curriculum and the art practice supported by History of Art undoubtedly opened up vistas on great masters.

In addition, at the University, he was exposed to a different culture as he came in contact with his peers with similar interests and the interaction proved productive. The pedagogy manicured his talents and deepened his creativity; but left no indelible impression upon his style or technique.

His works implicates the culture into which he is grounded. The tradition of Sri Lanka with its craft oriented industry and the ancient mural tradition all have their bearings. Admirably the technique that he has evolved is true to the tradition particularly in the murals at Sigiriya.

He says, "The circular style I have adopted has evolved for three reasons: it creates movement, it creates dimension and it shows the continuous motion of life."

By 1980, Senaka had evolved this individuated style and today, it has largely become his working method. Senaka's themes are wide ranging and encompass every facet of life. In "Pinna Patha", that obliquely references the religion of the island, the presence of the Buddha is implied symbolically by the stupa. This dimension of spiritual ambience is sanctified and reinforced by a group of monks with a female devotee interceding with utmost reverence. In the work, with dexterity Senaka work has enhanced the sanctity of the personages with white transparent bubbles within which the heads are contained instead of the usual halo around it.

However, though in this particular work, the transparent light bubbles tends to highlight and strengthen the main protagonists, it appears to be a popular device invented by Senaka noticeable in "The Egrets" and other works. "The Butterflies" and "Baby Elephants" clarify Senaka's versatility in his deployment of forms that are extremes from light and airy to weighty and earthy. These subjects further reinforce Senaka's humane philosophy that every life on this earth is precious and should not be mindlessly destroyed.

Senaka's paintings exude an aura of contemplative stillness admirably melding skill and creativity. His calculated organisation of forms and colours are the determinants of his decorative style that forces the viewer to linger on and glean out details that are meticulously worked out. Consequently, his works do not carry the burden of semantics, but rather serve as retinal treat, marked by the excellence of his craft and technique. The rich narrative, which he produces is largely inspired by his pride in his national heritage not only of architectural monuments and canonical pictorial traditions, but its rich flora and fauna.

Meeting the artist, the man and the philosopher all melded into one, Senaka's art efficiently bespeaks of all this and much more. His deep spirituality emanating from the works is the reflection of his simplicity and unaffectedness despite an international status, acknowledgement and appreciation from a tender age.

- Ashrafi S Bhagat

Art  should  have  Mass  Appeal  -  Senaka Senanayake
by  Jayanthi  Liyanage

His is a name which sparks admiring memories in all Sri Lankans who can trace back his meteoric rise into the world of art as a child prodigy, aged seven.

Scanning 45 years since then, devoted to painting, delving into varied stages of art and transcending the entire gamut of realism and abstract, artist Senaka Senanayake philosophises thus : "Whatever the various art movements that have evolved in the world, from cutting edge art to unusual bizarre work, what lasts at the end of the day is what the average public can respond to. A lot of new unusual art done today is admired and respected only by the art critics and connoisseurs and does not filter down to the masses."

His summing-up : "If anything is ever going to live forever, it needs to be appreciated by the masses," fits his current theme of painting, interwoven in the work he exhibited in Seoul, Korea, recently, as the first Sri Lankan to do so, and will recur in the exhibition he plans to have in Bombay by December 2003. For Senanayake now wields his canvas as his "reaction to the crisis" of problems, tensions, war and suffering which is seen in the country and around the contemporary world. "Life is not all about death and violence.

We live for the few moments of happiness we can get and the positive aspects of life," he says. "It may be make-believe, or fantasy, but that is what you live for. And that happiness is what I portray in my work, which the average public can respond to and enjoy."

This simple truth, he believes, is the secret of his sell-out exhibitions and why he receives bountiful responses from art critics and the public of whichever country he happens to hold an exhibition. So far, he has held 100 one-man exhibitions in 25 countries, cutting across Asia to America, and has his work on display in all the prominent local locations of public and private collections, banks and hotels and many prestigious overseas art galleries, including the United Nations Head Quarters. "The recent mural I did for the Apollo Hospital here is the largest and one of the best I have done," he says.

While anticipating more exhibitions in Korea and Czechoslovakia, he does not have immediate plans of delighting local art fans with depictions of birds, animals, humans, flowers and foliage, as he is wont to, due to a personal calendar full of international happenings for the coming two years.

Commenting on the current trends in world art, Senanayake sees an emerging Asian consciousness in its development. "India, Japan, Hongkong, Taiwan, China, Korea and Singapore have become great art markets," he says in support of this theory. "During the last century, the economic world power bases were Europe and America but I now think the shift is towards the East. This economic development is tied up with cultural development, more awareness and a consciousness of their own culture.

"The time has now arrived for artists to concentrate on their own regions," he prophesies.

June 2003

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