Hybrid vigour and beauty
Jane Lushington
VISIONS OF AN ISLAND by Neville Weereratne HarperCollins, £60, pp. 223 This book, by the Sri Lankan painter and writer Neville Weereratne, is an unus- ual biography of Christopher Ondaatje, art patron and major donor of the new exten- sion of the National Portrait Gallery, the Ondaatje Wing.
Weereratne was faced with a difficult task, for he sought to present Ondaatje through both words and photographs. The written biography is concise; one might have wished it longer. However, the rest of the man gradually emerges through his wonderful collection of Sri Lankan (and Ceylonese) art in many forms.
To open a book that so instantly trans- ported me to my home, Ceylon, was emo- tionally turbulent. The Ondaatjes were Dutch, my family British. Both families lived for generations in this fascinating land and called it home. So his life echoes mine. We were both forced to leave and were transplanted to England. The loss of home- land cannot be conveyed to those who have not known diaspora. The land of one's birth, of a child's awakening consciousness, the land that imbues with spirit, will remain in that child's dreams throughout life. The pain lessens, but sharp reminders can be evoked. Only a trip back to Ceylon, once, has affected me more than this book.
Three European peoples, the Portuguese, Dutch and British, in turn, colonised Ceylon from the 16th century until 1948. It was already an old land with an ancient art. 1948 ended the long love affair the Europeans had nurtured with it. There is nowhere more beautiful; one of its names is 'The Pearl of the East', and indeed it seems, on a map, to hang from the sun-browned ear of India like a great baroque pearl.
It has had many names: Sri Lanka (the land of the lion), Taprobane, Serendib, Zey- Ian, Ceilan, Ceylon, and again Sri Lanka. To us it must always be Ceylon, and we Cey- lonese. Over the centuries a transmogrifica- tion occurred to all these Europeans in this oriental island. Here East and West did meet. One cannot love a place so well and not be wedded to it. This produces a peo- ple, a style; hybrids, yet with hybrid vigour.
For over 40 years Ondaatje has collected art from his homeland. The collection is eclectic, ranging from terracotta figurines of the 2nd century to contemporary painters, among them Ivan Peries, Richard Gabriel, Ranil Deraniyagala, and Weer- eratne himself. I was surprised to find no reference to the refugee Russian painter Sofranov, active from the late 1930s to the 1950s, who was patronised by many; it was standing beside his easel, watching him paint a vivid oil of the renowned view from our upcountry bungalow, that confirmed in me, aged six, the ambition to paint.
The collection features objects in metals, silver and brass and fine steel swords. There is furniture, there are maps and manuscripts, watercolours of scenery, birds and mammals. Oddly, there is none of the famed Kandyan jewellery. If the island is itself a pearl, it has other gems in its heart, which glow underground reflecting the colours above of flower and bird, the hills, the moonstone seas.
The colonial furniture is very revealing. The marriage of European styles with trop- ical woods and native craftsmanship pro- duced a definitive hybrid art form that precisely echoes the intermingling of the races. Ondaatje is as hybrid a Ceylonese as is his padouk-wood almirah, as am I.
Through his collection he emerges as a latter day Lorenzo de Medici, patron and connoisseur of an art that is relatively little known, and has never been so well demon- strated. Here the author deserves praise. As painter he acknowledges the power of the visual. If this book succeeds in gaining better appreciation from more non-Cey- lonese who may visit the island to view its rich culture, then both author and subject have done their homeland great service.
There is so much to see, from the most dangerously sited murals in the world, the `Maidens' of Sigirya Rock, to the giant recumbent stone buddhas, elephants capar- isoned in torchlight procession, unequalled scenery, butterflies of flitting jade — these no collector may acquire.
Yet through his artworks Ondaatje lov- ingly displays his patriotism; we find the man in his myriad swords and betel-cutters, his paintings and sculptures. Such love is not often found in an art book.
Visions of an Island is distributed in England by NPG Bookshops; Haywood Hill; Rare Books & Berry, Porlock, Somerset.
`Breadfruit Tree at Utuwankanda' Gordon-Cumming 25 April 1874 62.2 x 39.3 cm
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