Sky Gallery of the Fareed Uduman Art Forum is dedicated to bringing audiences, cultures, and time periods together through meaningful and accessible art experiences to create the closest possible encounters with the world’s greatest paintings. Previous exhibitions include, Gustav Klimt, Frida Kahlo, Paul Gauguin, Vincent Van Gogh, Salvador Dali.

ICONS is conceived as “a dialogue across centuries” bringing together over a dozen artistic geniuses whose works span the Renaissance to the modern era. These works at their original scales of creation changes the conversation. You can finally stand in front of a life-size Vermeer or a monumental Monet and feel the dialogue between artists who never met but shaped each other across time. Each exhibit is meticulously presented on canvas, hand-framed, and finished at the exact dimensions of the original masterpieces, preserving the integrity of composition, texture, brushwork, color and scale.

At the heart of the exhibition is Jan van Eyck’s ‘Arnolfini Portrait’, a work that epitomizes the detail, symbolism, and human intimacy that have inspired generations of artists. Alongside it, visitors will encounter paintings that shaped the renaissance, impressionism, modernism, and the evolution of visual storytelling by Munch, Matisse, Monet, Degas, Da Vinci, Renoir, Vermeer, Rembrandt, Cézanne, Caravaggio, and more. The exhibition invites audiences to experience a rare conversation across centuries of artistic brilliance.

By bringing together works that are geographically and historically dispersed, ICONS creates a compelling space for comparison, reflection, and discovery. Visitors are invited to move beyond passive viewing into a more engaged encounter—tracing artistic influence, identifying stylistic shifts, and uncovering unexpected connections between artists who never shared the same physical space, yet remain deeply interconnected across time.

Designed and curated for both seasoned art enthusiasts and first-time visitors, ICONS offers an experience that is at once educational, immersive, and accessible—removing many of the traditional barriers associated with global museum-going.

Exhibition Details:

Dates: April 24 – May 3
Time: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM (Monday – Sunday)
Venue: Sky Gallery Colombo 5

BOOK REVIEW

Ranoukh Wijesinha (2026)

Published by Jam Fruit Tree Publications.
82 pages. Softcover. ISBN 978-624-6633-81-3

The author is a graduate teacher at St. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia; his alma mater. On leaving school he read for a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English Language and English Literature at the University of Nottingham (Malaysia). On graduating, in 2024, he went back to his old school to teach these same disciplines. There seems to be a historic logic to this as his grandfather, a notable Thomian of his day, also started his working career as a teacher at the College before moving on to the world of publishing; as a newspaper journalist and sub-editor.

On his maternal side, Wijesinha’s grandfather was an accomplished journalist, thespian and playwright of his day, and his mother is also a much sought after teacher of English and English Literature and, as acknowledged by him, his first, and foremost, English teacher.

Ranoukh Wijesinha and friends at STC

Though there are some well-written, almost lyrical, pieces of prose in this publication, it is the poetry that dominates. Written with a sensitivity to people and events he has either observed himself, or as described to him by those who did, it also encompasses all genres of poetic verse, from the classical to the modern, including sonnets, acrostics, haiku to free and blank verse, the latter more in vogue today. All in all, it presents as a celebration of English poetry and its ability to, sometimes, express depth of thought and feeling far better than prose.

Dedicated to his mentor at St. Thomas’, his Drama and Singing Master had been a great influence on Wijesinha His sudden, premature, death understandably came as a shock to the still developing student under his tutelage. The poems “The Man who Made Me” and “The Curtain Called” best demonstrate this. In addition, it is apparent that Wijesinha has endured much mental trauma in his young life. Spending much time on his own, the questions these moments have raised are expressed in “When No One is Listening”, “There was a Time”, “Midnight Walks” and the prose “A Ramble through Colombo”.

However, the majority of the poems concern ‘Our Teardrop’, Sri Lanka, for whom the writer has a great love. He explores its history, its natural wonders, its people, its tragedies, its corruption and the hope that things will get better for all its people. “Bala’ and “Dicky” address a time of violence from days gone by when there were few glories, just victims. “Easter Sunday” brings this almost to the present time.

There also is humour. “Ado, Machang, Bro, Dude” celebrates his friends and friendships in a way that will reverberate with all the present and previous generations of those who are, or were once, in their late teens and early twenties.

There is little to criticise in this first of the writer’s forays into published works except, as referred to previously, to re-state that the prose quails in the face of the power of the poetry. It is all well written, filled with passion and compassion, and gives comfort that there still are young Sri Lankan writers who can be this brave, and write so powerfully, and profoundly, in English. It is hoped that this is just the first of many from the pen of this young writer.

L S M Pillai

Lalith Kotelawala

As I write this I get news of the death of Lalith Kotelawala, an outstanding entrepreneur. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth as he was the only son of Justin Kotelawala, a pioneer Sri Lankan businessman and the younger brother of Sir John Kotelawala. Justin K started a successful insurance company in the face of competition from British insurers who dominated the field before independence. He also set up a finance company which catered to the rising native middle class in addition to owning large swathes of real estate partly acquired by his marriage to an heiress from one of Colombo’s richest families.

Gamani Corea was his nephew being his aunt’s only son. However with the change of regime in 1956 Lalith K, Justin’s son, lost most of his fortune due to the take over of the family insurance company and other assets. He had to start from scratch and build up his own companies including a Bank – the Seylan Bank and a finance company-Golden Key – both of which became very successful. His diversified group named Ceylinco entered into tourism, gem and jewellery, health and many other fields which had not been exploited by Sinhala businessmen.

His great success and penchant for publicity brought challenges to the Kotelawala business house for the second time. Lalith’s publicly declared appetite for political leadership either as President or Minister of Finance in a UNP regime brought on him the wrath initially of Nivard Cabraal and later the Rajapaksas who were in no mood to brook such a rich and powerful rival who had impeccable UNP credentials.

I had no qualms about supporting him as Investment Minister especially when he wished to set up a five star hotel in the “golden mile” of hotels on Galle road. He had successfully negotiated with the Hyattt group to partner him in this enterprise. Since his businesses were cash rich at this stage he saw no difficulty in financing this mega venture. He invited me and a few others to inaugurate this venture by participating in the groundbreaking ceremony. The building was just intruding onto the Colombo skyline when calamity hit him.

When the real economy contracts and legitimate business returns decline, small time savers are badly affected and they tend to go to get rich schemes and risky financial institutions which give them a bigger return. Lalith’s Finance company “Golden Key” provided such a refuge with high interest payments and a trustworthy name (Kotelawala) to guarantee the safety of their investments. Another problematic factor was that many politicians of the MR government saw in Lalith’s company a safe haven for their ill gotten gains away from the prying eyes of the tax authorities.

It must be said that he too was complicit in that he would have pandered to those crooks happy in the knowledge that big money was flowing into his coffers which would help to sustain his ever increasing promises of interest payments which were way higher than what was offered by the regular banking system. It soon became a Ponzi scheme. No wonder then that the Governor of the Central Bank was apprehensive of these developments. His objections were summarily dismissed by Lalith leading to a verbal battle between him and Cabraal. That undid him in the end. MR preferred to stand by Cabraal.

Lalith’s bravado irked many powerful politicians who were afraid he would take to “the family business” of politics like his uncle Sir John. MR who first befriended him, abandoned him when the Central Bank warned him of a possible financial catastrophe. This became a reality when a senior politician who had amassed a large sum of ill gotten money and deposited it with “Golden Key” was assassinated by the LTTE. Soon after that tragedy his relatives pulled out their money sending the finance company into a liquidity crisis.

The manager of the company whom Lalith trusted had released the money without informing him. There was a run on the company as soon as news of a large scale withdrawal became public. On previous such occasions the Central Bank would intervene to prevent a collapse. But in this case they did not and Golden Key had to be liquidated leaving tens of thousands of small depositors penniless. It was a mega scandal and with his wife embroiled in a money laundering charge Lalith fell from grace.

He was remanded in Welikada prison with his health ruined and his reputation in tatters. Later I visited him several times in his home to find that he was a broken man. With his premature death a pioneer mega local investor was lost and the local investment scenario received a heavy blow.

Karu resigns

At about this time a dispute flared up between the President and Karu Jayasuriya. Numerous complaints were directed to MR that Karu as Minister of Public Administration was favouring UNP official, particularly Grama Sevakas, who were appointees of the UNP from the time of JRJ and Premadasa. If there was one thing MR was sensitive about it was the need to keep his backbenchers happy. On the other hand, Ranil succeeded in luring Karu back with the promise of making him the Deputy leader of the UNP.

Karu who was a great believer in Sai Baba and other assorted soothsayers, realized that he could not make much headway in the PA which was already full of ambitious and unscrupulous politicians. Karu’s departure led to a mini reshuffle and I was sent back to the Ministry of Public Administration while my friend, Anura Yapa, became the new Minister of Investment Promotion.

Back in my old Ministry I found that the northern war was intensifying with our armed forces regaining the initiative for the first time. This was largely due to the efforts of Gotabaya and Sarath Fonseka who at that time had the confidence of the President. MR used all his famous PR skills to ensure that he got the adulation of the public for the advances of the army. He visited the newly liberated areas and encouraged the soldiers for which he deserved the highest praise as none of his predecessors had visited the battle front.

Says Chandraprema, “The President visited Vakarai on February 3, 2007 soon after the area had been cleared. This ready willingness to visit the war zone despite the risk of attacks from infiltration teams was what gave the armed forces the feeling that this was a President to whom the war was a national priority and not just a regrettable necessity”. He posed for a photo op with the Special Forces that liberated Vakarai and visited a Kovil. The Hindu priest who garlanded him was shot dead a few days later by the LTTE showing that MR had bravely taken a mighty risk.

The rolling successes of the army meant that my Ministry had to bend its energies to maintain civil administrations in the North and East. It became challenging because the LTTE were forcing the inhabitants in the contested northern areas to follow them while retreating in the Vanni leaving “ghost towns” behind. The LTTE had even carried away furniture and roofing from homes in order to create a mobile “human shield” to save themselves from attacks by the armed forces. They also used civilians to dig large trenches along the way to impede the advance of heavy weapons and transports of the army moving into the LTTE held areas.

I was in touch with my Government Agents who had a difficult time often caught in the crossfire between the army and the LTTE. The I TTE brutalized the public servants. For instance the AGA of Tirukkovil in the east was murdered by the LTTE because he did not help the insurgents. But once the army secured strategic points like Kilinochchi and Vauniya the local administration was able to function effectively again. The Tamil parties raised issues in Parliament, probably on the instigation of the LTTE, and I had to answer them in the House after consulting my GAs and Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Gota was always courteous and keen to brief us about the latest developments in the theatre of battle. We had to keep in mind that the LTTE was keen to recruit public servants to their cause. When a joint committee was to be setup after the signing of the Indo-Lanka agreement, the LTTE insisted on appointing an AGA of ‘Trincomalee – Pathmanathan, who was a hall mate of mine at Peradeniya, as their nominee and Chairman of the committee. Since we refused to recognize a public servant as a nominee of the LTTE this project was abandoned despite the best efforts of the Indian High Commission.

Winning in the Vanni

After the clearing of the east and establishing the local administration there, the army launched a pincer attack on the extensive LTTE held territory in the Vanni. One army group extended the defence line from the west of Vavuniya towards Mannar bringing that area under government control. The army initially faced stiff resistance from LTTE fighters. The traditional army approach of moving in large formations on a broad front which was the “Sandhurst trained” army leaders strategy was not working since the LTTE could break through the thinly manned army lines.

Chandraprema describes well the change of tactics under SF and GR which brought success to the army; “The army had learnt the hard way during the ‘decade of darkness’ in the 1990s that moving in large formations presents an easy target for LTTE artillery. After assessing where they went wrong in the past operations, the army stopped operating in traditional formations like platoons, companies and battalions and split up instead into small groups, the eight-man team being the norm. After the monsoon ‘stand still’ the army resumed its advance along the hinterland of western Vanni. Another task force operated along the coastal belt and captured the strategic town of Silavaturai which had earlier been a major camp of the army to prevent smuggling and illicit immigration, being the closest to the Port of Colombo.”

However the next objective of capturing LTTE bases Adampan and Anandakulam in the “rice bowl” was an arduous undertaking. To break the impasse the army followed the tactic of opening up many fronts to break up the LTTE forces which earlier had the opportunity of deploying in strength on a few strategic points. After heavy fighting, Adampan was captured in May 2008. By the end of November 2008 the vital point of Pooneryn was captured and the threat to the Jaffna encampment from LTTE long range artillery was eliminated thereby releasing the troops in Jaffna fort for the Mullaitivu offensive.

On January 2, 2009 the symbolically crucial town of Kilinochchi was captured and the fighting moved to Muhamalai which was considered a “jinx” for the army which had in the past failed to go beyond it. This time around the army adopted a strategy of attrition wearing down the LTTE formations through RPG attacks and close range encounters. Another set of troops came down from Jaffna and breached the LTTEs second line of defence of Muhamalai. By the first week of January 2009 Muhamali was in army hands and troops could move down to Elephant Pass via Palai where the LTTEs resistance was overcome. The LTTE cadres then retreated towards the jungles of Mullaitivu where the final battles were destined to take place.

Diplomatic games

Once the LTTE together with their hostage Tamil civilians, were driven into an increasingly small quadrant in Mullaitivu, they launched a publicity and diplomatic campaign to stop hostilities and rescue the remaining leaders and their families including Prabhakaran and his wife and children. It was a multipronged effort which included mobilizing the UN, the diaspora and NGOs, the UK and USA and especially India. It was a formidable combination and it stands to the credit of MR and GR that they dlid not succumb to their threats as well as blandishments.

In many ways it was MR’s finest hour. Each of these interlocutors were fully engaged and it was made clear that no compromise was possible. Credit must be given also to the Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama who resisted the advice of his officials and fully backed MR in his approach to the interlocutors. The biggest pressure came from India. Fortunately the Indian High Commissioner in Colombo Alok Prasad stood by the Sri Lankan government and the “Troika” of three representatives of each side which met regularly kept each other informed of the ground situation.

The Secretary-General of the UN sent his special envoy Satish Nambiar to broker a ceasefire. MR and GR stood firm against it and dismissed the possibility of sending a UN fact finding mission to Mullaitivu. The NGOs were represented by a high level delegation led by Bernard Kouchner of France and David Milliband of the UK. Fortunately MR was able to call their bluff by taking a tough stand that their advice was not warranted by the facts on the ground.

An interesting side line was MR’s decision not to dignify their visit. He moved to Chandrikawewa which was close to his ancestral home in Medamulana. In this he was influenced by his experiences with Gaddafi in Libya. When he visited Libya, Gaddafi, a Bedouin, had pitched camp in the desert and MR was received in that encampment. He emulated Gaddafi and the visiting firemen from Europe had to be driven, sweating profusely in their western clothes to the humid dry zone hotel veranda for their audience with MR.

It was not a lesson that they would easily forget. By a coincidence both these selfish do gooders were not able to achieve their ambitions of high office in their countries and faded ultimately from public view. All these interlocutors were under the impression that the civilians trapped in the quadrant were attacked by our army. Actually the reverse was the case. The army literally held their fire and when the civilians began to cross the lagoon they were welcomed and even fed on army rations which were meant for the soldiers.

It was the LTTE that tried to prevent the civilians from leaving them as their human shield was being eroded. Fortunately Indian officials who monitored the evacuation saw this and stood by us even though Tamilnadu which was facing an election, as expected, used the Sri Lanka situation as a popular rallying cry. To help in this dire situation we agreed to issue a statement that heavy artillery would not be used to fire on the shrinking LTTE quadrant. These were astute and professionally sound Foreign Ministry moves for which MR, GR and Bogollagama should be given the credit.

There is another “inside story” which attests to MR’s luck during this period. When the post of Sec. Gen. of the UN fell vacant with the retirement of Kofi Annan, Jayantha Dhanapala was a candidate to succeed him. He had the backing of the west because he had handled discussions on the non -proliferation of strategic weapons to their satisfaction. US President Bill Clinton supported him. “This pro west tilt alarmed the Non Aligned countries and India promoted Sashi Tharoor as a rival candidate. Jayantha’s candidature was dead in the water as MR had been persuaded by local businessmen to throw our country’s support behind Ban Ki Moon who eventually got the job. It was no secret that the South Koreans threw a lot of money around to get this job for their countryman since they had been poorly received in the UN system.

MRs decision turned out to be a lucky one as Ban Ki Moon adopted a soft line with our government. After he and MR issued a joint statement the UN did not bully the Sri Lankan government. All in all this episode was handled astutely and the war was concluded on our terms. Prabhakaran and nearly all of the top leadership were killed together with large numbers of their terrorist fighters. It was the only instance at that time in the whole world where terrorism was comprehensively defeated.

Speaking at a meeting to felicitate GR at that time I drew attention to the need to tell the world about the humane way in which the civilians who crossed the lagoon were treated. The Sunday Observer of May 27, 2012 reported the following: “Senior Minister of International Monetary Cooperation said Sri Lanka’s humanitarian mission of rescuing over 150,000 Tamil civilians from the clutches of the LTTE’ was the greatest humanitarian operation in modern times. He said, “our heroic forces crossed the lagoon at Pudumathalan and went through difficult terrain to cross the earth bund built by the LTTE. Then they facilitated the crossover of 150,000 civilians to the government controlled area. It was a heroic effort and one of t he greatest of humanitarian operations”.

He said that our case has not been properly presented to the global community. “We are only talking about what happened at the Nandikadal lagoon. Nobody talks about what happened at the lagoon in Pudumathalan”.

(This book is available at the Vijitha Yapa Bookshop)

(Excerpted from vol. 3 of the Sarath Amunugama autobiography)