Ivan Peries

Who was Ivan Peries?

Ivan Peries was a Sri Lankan painter, and a founder member of the 43 Group of Sri Lankan artists . Born near Colombo, from 1953 he lived in England. He was called 'the Romantic exile' by the group, because although he only visited his country of birth once again, in 1976, his paintings were concerned with his memories of Sri Lanka.

Peries' subjects, repeatedly rural life and the ocean shoreline, were of 'a world neither ancient nor modern, clearly recognisable, strangely, hauntingly meaningful and yet ultimately outside the natural experience'. The subject of Ivan Peries' paintings, considered alongside psychological difficulties he suffered in relation to his cultural dislocation, have made him an important post-colonial artist, and a key figure in the origins of contemporary Sri-Lankan art.