Untitled (Two Women Amid Plants)

Sri Lankan artist George Keyt was influenced by Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Paul Gauguin but rooted his thematic content in local tradition, drawing from Hindu and Buddhist mythology. He also often painted women of his native Kandyan hills. The women in this canvas sit cross-legged on the floor with a grove of plantains on one side, a field on the other. The woman in the foreground is animated and holds a pestle, while behind her is another woman at rest. It is a seminal work from a time when South Asian art was liberating itself from the stranglehold of realism.