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Senaka Senanayake (B.1951) Composition with Women image 1
Senaka Senanayake (B.1951) Composition with Women image 2
Senaka Senanayake (B.1951) Composition with Women image 3
Lot 25

Senaka Senanayake
(B.1951)
Composition with Women

4 June 2025, 15:00 BST
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £17,920 inc. premium

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Senaka Senanayake (B.1951)

Composition with Women
oil on canvas, framed
55.8 x 73.9cm (21 15/16 x 29 1/8in).

Footnotes

Provenance
Property from a private collection, UK.

Note: There is a label on the reserve with the name of the artist, his address, age at which painted (14), price and country of origin.

Note: The work has been authenticated by the artist.

Created when Senanayake was just fourteen, this striking early work, Untitled (Composition with Women), features a group of female figures emerging from a dynamic, multicoloured background. Their abstracted forms are defined by bold, dark strokes and a heavily textured, gestural style. With fluid lines and loose brushwork, the composition reflects Senanayake's early fascination with movement, echoing the language of mid-20th-century Expressionism. Blending abstraction with figuration, the work channels a modernist aesthetic in which form and expression are intimately intertwined.

The figures captured in dynamic poses of standing, crouching, and gesturing appear to be engaged in a communal or ritualistic act. Through this composition, Senanayake addresses themes of femininity, solidarity, and corporeality. As a formative work, this stunning piece lays the foundation for his continued exploration of identity within community, and the interrelation between the body and the natural world, evidenced in lots 1,8,13 and 21.

Additional information

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