Re: The National Art Gallery:
A National Disaster
OPEN LETTER to
The Honourable Minister of Cultural Affairs Government of Sri Lanka
Sethsiripaya, 8th Floor Battaramulla Sri Lanka
Asoka Weerasinghe
Kings Grove Crescent
Gloucester, Ontario
Canada
Honourable Sir:
*Re: The National Art Gallery: A National Disaster*
I am taking the liberty to address this letter to you assuming that
the National Art Gallery is under the purview of your Ministry.
On June 19, I had the privilege of visiting the National Art Gallery
at Ananda Coomaraswamy Mawatha, together with my daughter to introduce
her to Sri Lanka’s best visual art and her prestigious artists.
*/The Lonely Planet Series – Sri Lanka/* recommended visitors
to the island to take in the National Art Gallery. She insisted that
we go, and so we did.
It said on page 90 : */‘The National Art Gallery, 106 Ananda Coomaraswamy
Mawatha, Col.7; admission free; 9am-5pm, closed poya days is next door
to the National History Museum in Viharamahadevi Park. The permanent
collection mostly consists of portraits, but share also some temporary
exhibitions by Sri Lankan artists.’/*
The beautifully manicured front garden, the sculptured friezes and
the guarding lions of the well kept ochre exterior of the National Art
Gallery quite rightly prepared us for an amazing excitement that one
would expect walking into a truly cultural institution that Sri Lanka
is proud of. Unfortunately, in my eyes, it was not to be.
I walked in, looked to my left, then looked to my right, and instantly
realized that I had walked into a national disaster. It was embarrassing,
truly embarrassing. And I felt that there was no reason why your Ministry
should expose Sri Lanka to such an embarrassment, and destroy the worth
and dignity of Sri Lanka’s visual artists of the past and present.
Sir, this is what I witnessed. Every piece of art hanging on the wall,
which was obviously a national treasure or else they would not be hanging
from the walls of Sri Lanka’s National Art Gallery had been abused
environmentally and curatorially.
Every oil painting, some which I believe have been hanging for decades,
were dusty, paints were cracking off the canvases and flaking. The frames
were in disrepair. The mouldings were broken in parts and missing, and
the colouring of the frames had lost its sheen. The stretch bars on
which the canvases were stretched were rotting in places and the one
frame that enclosed the oil painting of the portrait of Rt. Hon.
S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike had dropped off the frame exposing the rusting
securing nails. God knows how long it had been dropped off the frame
without being attended to. This was less than amateurish and crude and
should not be an acceptable norm for any national art institution.
The amazing fact is that all the watercolour paintings were window-mounted
with ordinary art paper when they should have been matted with one-eighth-inch
acid-free conservation mat boards. There have been extensive water damage
to some caused by a leaking roof. Some had lost their details damaged
by improper lighting and discolouring of the supposed to be white mat
paper. The mats had curled and were out of contact with the paintings.
To expose these paintings to the public as your national treasure shows
a poor sense of value by the government for the visual art of Sri Lanka
and the lack of pride in your erstwhile artists of the past who excelled
in their brilliance in this part of the world. George Keyts works have
been auctioned at Sotherbys. And that says it all. Were paintings by
L.T.P.Manjusri, S.P. Charles, J.D.A Perera, David Paynter Ivan Peiris,
Justin Deraniyagala, Richard Gabriel and Aubrey Collette have no intrinsic
value as Sri Lanka’s premier visual art of the past? If they were
hanging, then I did not know as there weren’t a single label telling
who the artist was. If they are indeed in storage, I propose that you
appoint a panel of three jurists who are specialist art connoisseur-critics
and established artists to go through the collection and bring out
the best art that Sri Lanka can be proud of as treasures produced by
our visual artists of the past and present. Should there be sculptures
by sculptors Tissa Ranasinghe and Oliver Weerasinghe who have found
fame abroad?
Should the National Art Collection be presented at the Gallery in some
chronology - Pre-colonial Period (Temple Art), Colonial Period, Post-Colonial
Period (50s, 60s and 70s), and the present (80s and beyond)? This could
produce an amazing permanent art exhibition befitting a National Art
Collection of Sri Lanka.
I like to believe that your *Mission Statement* of the National Gallery
is as close to, *‘The mission of the National Art Gallery is to
serve Sri Lanka in a national role by preserving, collecting, exhibiting,
and fostering the understanding of works of art, at the highest possible
museum and scholarly standards.*
* The National Art Gallery’s principal duty is to keep its collections
intact for future generations and to pass these on in optimum condition,
by striving to maintaining security, environmental control, building
maintenance and conservation.’*
If that is indeed the case, then I suppose you have a solid base to
bring back the pride of Sri Lanka’s visual art and give back the
dignity to your outstanding artists of the past and present and make
the National Art Gallery the repository of a treasured collection. And,
perhaps, eliminate the requirement of having the portrait of every past
Prime Minister and President of the island as part of the national collection,
unless the paintings meet the “highest scholarly standards”.
The appointed panel of art jurists will be able to make choices to conform
with the Mission Statement.
Sir, I wish you would take my observations positively and activate
a* PROJECT PRIDE: REINVENTING THE IMAGE OF THE NATIONAL ART GALLERY.*
I will be honoured if you would permit me as a concerned expatriate,
art collector, and a former owner of an art gallery in Canada, to help
you restore the dignity of your visual artists and charter the course
to pave way to be proud of your visual artists of yesterday, today and
of tomorrow.
I propose the following plan for *PROJECT PRIDE: REINVENTING THE IMAGE
OF THE NATIONAL ART GALLERY.*
If invited, my team will consist of –
*1. Asoka Weerasinghe*, art collector, art consultant and dealer, and
former owner of ART WORLD ONE, art gallery, studio and framing store
at Ogilvie Square 2181 Ogilvie Road, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
*Luis Salazar*, master framer with 15 years experience in Museum quality
and conservation framing of original art, and present owner of ART WORLD
ONE.
*Yao Wen Kui, *artist and conservator. Former instructor in Art at University
of Shanghai, China.
2. We will restore, conserve and frame according to museum quality
standards all the *juried art collection* that will hang from the walls
of the National Art Gallery as the permanent exhibition and *not ones
in storage. *This will entail two visits to Colombo.
The frames and liners will be of classical wood mouldings produced
in Italy and Brazil and acid-free mat-boards. All paintings except the
oils will have acid free backings and will be sealed. All glass will
be cut in Colombo.
When we return after the first visit we shall order the frames and
acid-feed mat boards, stretch bars, etc., which hopefully will be delivered
within the month. Our supplier is in Laval, Quebec.
Once the frames, stretch bars and other framing materials are received
we will crate them (maximum of three crates) and hand them over to the
Sri Lanka High Commissioner in Ottawa to be forwarded as diplomatic
cargo to be received by you. Once they reach you, inform us and we will
do some housekeeping at this end so that we can free ourselves to get
away for two months,
3. To accomplish this task the team will require two visits to Colombo
from Ottawa.
The first stay will be for two weeks, when we will measure all the paintings
for framing and select mouldings which will be appropriate for each
painting, assess the requirements for conservation and cleaning of the
paintings, etc.
The second visit will be for two months, when we will conserve the
paintings, re-stretch canvases where required, frame and hang the paintings.
4. I do not believe for a moment that Sri Lanka is a poor country,
according to my cost effective barometer of the number of staff at the
Sri Lanka High Commission in Ottawa. A desk audit will tell you that
I am right that this Mission could be run effectively with a staff of
11. Any more than this number is punitive financial decadence riding
on a poor man’s back, as during one Foreign Minister of late there
were 21 staffers in this Mission. Yet, having made that observation
I am prepared to share the cost of project with your Ministry.
* 5. My responsibility* : Absorb my consultancy fee ($850 a day) for
the project. Pay the lost wages and labour costs of Luis Salazar and
Yao Wen Kui, and hiring of two art student helpers from Heywood who
would also have a learning experience.
Absorb half the invoiced costs of frames, framing material of the project,
splitting right in the middle of the total costs.
Absorb the cost of crating the frames and framing material and cost
of transportation to the Sri Lanka High Commission in Ottawa to be forwarded
as diplomatic cargo.
* 6. Financial responsibility of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs*:
Absorb costs of six return air tickets Ottawa-Colombo-Ottawa.
Pay for the transport of my team from Colombo airport to Hotel and
back to the airport.
Book and be responsible for the cost of board (3 meals per day) and
lodging at a hotel close to the National Art Gallery, and transportation
from hotel to the National Art Gallery and back during our stay.
Absorb cost of the crated diplomatic cargo and any brokerage and taxes
incurred at Customs in Colombo’s sea port, and delivery to the
National Art Gallery.
Absorb half the cost of invoices of all the frames and framing materials
purchase for the project.
If this financial break down favours you we should be able to sign
an MOU negotiated through the Sri Lanka High Commissioner in Ottawa,
with a projected guestimate, with one proviso. We should not start this
project unless there is a commitment by your Ministry that the National
Art Gallery infrastructure is corrected which includes specifically
fixing the leaky roof and put in place new banks of conservation lighting,
which will be specified by our team.
I shall have this proposal open for your consideration until December
31, 2007.
You may wish to contact me through the Sri Lanka High Commissioner
in Ottawa as he knows where I reside.
While thanking you for your consideration, let’s give back the
pride and dignity to Sri Lanka’s visual artists of yesterday, today
and tomorrow with *PROJECT PRIDE*: *REINVENTING THE NATIONAL ART GALLERY*
as they deserve nothing more and nothing less. And the Sri Lankan peoples
will be proud of this cultural oasis.
Yours truly,
Asoka Weerasinghe
Consultant, Communications and Exhibit Planning and Design Former, Head
of Thematic Research, National Museums of Canada Former, Head, Exhibits
Section, National Museum of Natural Sciences, Ottawa, Canada Former,
Manager of Exhibits, Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Ottawa
Former owner of ART WORLD ONE, art gallery, studio and framing shop
cc. Sri Lanka High Commissioner in Ottawa
2066 Kings Grove Crescent
Gloucester, Ontario
K1J 6G1
Canada
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