George Keyt

George Keyt (1901–1993) was a Sri Lankan painter and one of the most significant modernists in South Asian art. He worked primarily in oils, synthesising Cubist and South Asian visual traditions.

If you have a work attributed to George Keyt, contact: india@privatkunst.ch

Privatkunst.ch grew from a personal interest in works that carry a history. There is always more behind a work of art than first appears — and most stories are not yet fully told.

Many objects in private hands were never properly assessed — because no one with the right knowledge looked at them. That has changed. Open research archives, digitised auction catalogues, and image analysis now make it possible to understand a work in new ways and with a depth of information that simply did not exist before. A work rarely stands alone. And it carries its history within it — if you know how to read it.

If you are interested in how archives, reference sources and new technologies are contributing to the assessment of art, see the article here → — currently only in German.

For an overview of Indian art — modern, contemporary, and the recognition women artists are finally receiving — read here →