Ivan Peries (1921-1988) emerged as a significant figure in Sri Lankan art, born on July 31st, 1921, in Dehiwala, southern Colombo. Mentored by Harry Pieris, Peries played a pivotal role in forming the influential '43 Group, reshaping Sri Lanka's artistic landscape.
In 1948, Peries secured a government scholarship to study painting in London, immersing himself in post-war artistic developments. Though returning to Sri Lanka periodically, he settled permanently in the UK in 1953, first in London and later in Southend on Sea. During this time, he continued to exhibit with the 43 Group in Sri Lanka and overseas, as well as in London and on continental Europe; at The Imperial Institute (1952), Petit Palais, Paris (1953), AIA Gallery, London and Heffer Gallery, Cambridge (1954), the XXVIIIth. Venice Biennale (1956), XXIXth. Venice Biennale (1958), South London Art Gallery (1960), Bear Lane Gallery, Oxford (1961 and 1963) and at the Queenswood Gallery, to name a few. He also participated in several exhibitions at London's Commonwealth Institute Art Gallery and had a retrospective at St Catherine's College Oxford in 1965.
Peries exhibited a few more times in Sri Lanka as part of the 43 Group, but then experienced a dark period during the 1970s and went 10 years without an exhibition. The 1979 show at the Newman Rooms in Oxford was organised by his friends Jacob Coates and John Miskin and provided the Artist with a significant boost.
During the last decade of his life, he continued to experienced bouts of ill-health and worked tirelessly. Other than his experimental Broken Tree series of the early 1980s, much of the decade was spent reworking and refining themes and subjects from the past. There were solo and group exhibitions throughout the ‘80s, with renewed interest in his work emerging Sri Lanka following his 1983 retrospective at the Sapumal Foundation.
1988 saw Peries preparing for his participation at Rasheed Araeen’s seminal exhibition ‘The Other Story, Afro-Asian artists in post-war Britain’, held at London’s Hayward Gallery. Sadly, Peries never saw the exhibition as died of a heart attack on 13 February 1988, aged 66. His Times obituary stated “His paintings evoke the coastal village and landscape of Sri Lanka with a visionary clarity. The possess haunting poignancy and above all, an intense but refined luminosity.”