My father the artist
Jomo Uduman, presents his father Fareed Uduman’s work in an exhibition at the Barefoot Gallery
My father was an extraordinary man. During his lifetime he painted dozens of startlingly original, vibrant and (at times) surreal paintings: untitled, undated, unsigned and unframed. He painted on cardboard, hardboard, plywood, canvas or on any other material he could lay his hands on. He nailed these to the wall and painted beautiful pictures that nobody understood. Most of them ended up behind cupboards and doors cobwebbed, dusty and forgotten. Pieces of his life, heart and soul; the unquenchable fire that raged within.
Most of his early works have sadly perished. Some were gifted and now hang overseas. In the sixties he was fleetingly captured by Nihal Fernando who exhibited some of his paintings at ‘Studio Times’. After he died in 1985, I began this wondrous journey of collecting his paintings, dusting, repairing and framing them. Some paintings were used to replace broken windowpanes! One had paintings on both sides! I could not believe what I saw. I knew he was gifted and special.
Laki Senanayake walked into my home one day, saw these paintings and was amazed that nobody had seen them. He gave me the confidence and courage to arrange an exhibition at the Barefoot Gallery 706 in June 1993. Laki aptly named it ‘Odd Man Out’. The comments in the visitors’ book were indeed a pleasure to read. The paintings were not for sale. Everyone wanted to know why he was unknown in the ‘circuit’ when he was alive. I had no answers.
Ellen Dissanayake wrote a wonderful review, which was published in the Sunday Observer and The Island that also dealt with his technique and originality which I am not competent to write about. The most courageous comment she made was comparing him to Justin Deraniyagala of the ’43 Group.
“Of the Sri Lankan painters, Uduman’s work reminds me most in certain respects of that of Justin Deraniyagala. Both are expressionistic in their concern with emotional expression; both use paint as a language; both are more concerned with their own vision than with pleasing presumptive viewers, and thus make bold use of paint and of formal distortions that may or may not succeed. Neither signed nor dated their works, nor were interested in selling them. Both artists show a predilection for single figures with animals or objects, or for animals (especially bulls and birds). Both artists convey a personality that could perhaps be described as turbulent, introverted, and sensitive, no doubt finding in the art of painting a kind of release from the torments of self imprisonment and certainly the satisfactions of giving some shape and external expression to their inner worlds. Uduman’s works do not have the sophistication of Deraniyagala; in any case, he did not have the opportunity to learn painting in foreign art academies nor to devote his entire life to his art..”
During the years after that exhibition in 1993 I retrieved another 11 paintings. I had to title all the paintings with my own perceptions of them, helped by some hazy recollections of discussions we had during and after a painting. In 2005 I produced a book ‘Fareed Uduman - Paintings, Poems & Cartoons’ showcasing his works and launched it at the Dienge Gallery together with his second exhibition. In 2012 in response to too many requests I presented his third exhibition at the Lionel Wendt gallery.
In or around 1971 “The Nation”, a LSSP weekly, ran a cartoon competition, which my father won week after week and was finally retained as their cartoonist. These cartoons, which I managed to retrieve, show his remarkable awareness of local and world politics and his (obvious) communistic leanings. His other writings were penned in a fat blue monitor’s exercise book from where I recovered some poems he had written during his lifetime, that give us a glimpse into his private world.
My father was an enigma and sometimes an embarrassment to most of his family and friends. He remained a zealous non-conformist right up to the end. Although born a Muslim he called himself a humanist, atheist, communist and a rationalist. Essentially an urbanite, he rarely ventured out. Most of his paintings thus seem to be manifestations of experiences and images captured in and around the city. He was a voracious reader of Science, Politics, Philosophy, Religion, Medicine, Literature and Art. The knowledge he accumulated during his lifetime was incredible.
This final tribute to him comes with sadness. That during his lifetime he was never recognized for his art, his profound love and what he stood up for. Nobody reached out far enough to free him. But he selflessly reached beyond all parameters to free people from pain, to shield the weak from the strong and to offer his bruised shoulder for anybody to lean on. I hope this exhibition will bring his spirit alive - again. It will be a great opportunity for young artists especially to study and examine closely the unconventional styles through which his paintings evolved over the years and up to his demise.
His political cartoons too will be on display. The works of Fareed Uduman (1917-1985) will be exhibited at the Barefoot Gallery from March 25– April 16 from 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. from Monday - Saturday.