Culture is not just a reflection of economic and social structure. It is mediated at a variety of levels. It is mediated by the complexity and contradictory nature of the social groups in which it originates, it is mediated by the particular situation of it’s actual producers, and it is mediated by the nature of operation of aesthetic codes and conventions, through which ideology is transformed and in which it is expressed (Wolff 1993:71).

 It seems to me, that these brief observation place in context some of the configurations of the post-traditional art practice of Jaffna,
I would like to address in this essay. The emergence of an individual who identify his/her self as artist and their intention as self expression characterized the shift in the art practice in the post colonial societies. This was influenced by the immense structural changes in the condition of artistic production. The introduction of alien aesthetic codes and conventions and the institution for dissemination of such conventions through art schools, and the development of modern institutions of artistic mediation such as museums, commercial galleries, publishing houses were the prime factors, which contributed to the shift from traditional art practices to post – traditional1 art practices. Since these changes were initiated and influenced by the colonial culture, these activities of art making and conception centered on the colonial urban and more specifically the urban elite space. Therefore as in the west, the post-traditional art practice became an urban phenomenon ,
and the urban experience and nostalgia were important in shaping the cultural dynamics of diverse post – traditional movements and trends. So it is very natural, that Colombo became the institutionalized centre for post- traditional art practice in Sri Lanka.

 But what is interesting to me here is that apart from Colombo unlike any other regions in Sri Lanka, Jaffna which is not a fully urban site and a middle class dominated society has been a place for post-traditional art production. Therefore the question here is how Jaffna remains a site for such art production even when such conditions were lacking. By addressing the above question in this preliminary work, I would like to sketch the emergence of the artist’s self by locating it in the changing socio-political situation, and read the intention of the exhibitionary styles of these artist’s works. In the process of reading the complexities of the artist’s self making in the post – traditional Jaffna society, it seem to me that in the absence of institutional support, popularity and material benefits, the notion of art practice is associated with the construction/reconstruction of artist’s own self identity and the ecstasy of caring for that identity; therefore being an artist became a political decision and political act rather than a professional choice in post colonial Jaffna.

Identity – Art,  Artist and Nation.

 It has long been recognized that the developments of the conception of the artist is a historical and culturally specific phenomenon (Tanner, 2003). The notion of the individual artist which emerged during the Renaissance period and later culminated with the avant – garde in late 19th century Europe, was introduced into our local expressive culture through colonial intervention. This changed the status of the artist and his/her self perception as an unique individual who was no longer prepared to be bound by social conventions but by followed his/her own destiny in the relentless pursuit of an artistic ideal (Mitter 1995:13). In a way the emergence of the artist as enterprising individual is associated with the change in patronage, mode of practice and shifts in the meaning of art. On the other hand colonialism took art away from the bounds of tradition and its caste hierarchy, and embedded it in the newly emerged middle class society. Since the whole process of this individualization in art is associated with the comprehensive package that sought to reproduce the cultural values of the west during the colonial raj, it also directly or indirectly associated with the national consciousness of the locals. As Geetha Kapur (1995) points out there is indeed a chronological fix between nationhood and modernity, and both may stand in for a quest of selfhood, for Indian or third world artists even the tasks of subjectivity are unsolved and require acts of allegorical exegesis often via the nation. Further Thapati Guha observed that, the colonial encounter brought into being a new social entity the artist with the heightened self-awareness about individual identity and nationality, and she further stated that it also produced a special discursive and institutional space for art in middle class society. Together both ‘art’ and artist (in their new privileged status and modernized conception) became important agent in the articulation of national sovereignty and middle class cultural hegemony (Thakura, 1995). So in short the agency of arts in nation building paved the way for the recognition of this newly emerged self identity of the artist. Hence in colonial societies carving the artist’s self cannot be simply interpreted neither as an individuating project nor as cerebrally making a personal pictorial idiom but it can be seen as an attempt to locate the territory, past and future of the newly emerged nation in the present collective consciousness.
 

Tradition and Transformation
 In the caste hierarchical traditional Jaffna, the production and consumption of art was governed by the caste system. Even though there was no caste which was directly associated with the production of painting, it was seen by the dominant vellala men, as a work done by panjakammalars, pandarams and women. Therefore within the system of caste the artist was submerged in his community identity and there was no question of individual identity. Hence the status and the role  of particular artist/artisan are governed by his/her caste position rather than the ability or merit of an individual.

 The first written evidence on Colonial Jaffna painting appeared in the leaflets of the modern Tamil saiva revivalist Arumuga Navalar (1822-1879). In that, Navalar followed the steps of protestant missionaries whom he fought against and called for a total ban on all wall paintings and painted images, which he described as nude and erotic. (Kailasapillai. 1996 : 79) This criticism of Navalar based on the protestant puritan ideals may have influenced the dominant Saiva Vellalar middle class in the reframing of the idea of painting, and further made them to maintain a psychological distance in production and consumption of it. But this situation slightly changed when art became a school subject and art teaching became a government job through English education and through the widespread of Hindu iconic and mythological oleograph prints of south Indian painter Raja Raviverma. 
 
 
As part of the colonial raj’s progressive package art was introduced as a subject in schools, teacher’s training colleges and technical college . Art education which is based on Victorian academic realism replaced the traditional aesthetics and art practice.

The new Victorian ideal of representation, the new avenues of learning and the new job opportunities in art teaching opened the way to high caste middle class entry into this field without bearing a low caste identity or without giving up of their own caste identity. This high caste middle class entry into the field of art in most cases aimed to gain a government job in teaching with a good pension and job security which was the middle class aspiration and anxiety rather than an ambition of being an artist. But undoubtedly there were a few teachers with the ambition of practicing painting and they were the pioneers in the process of reframing the notion of the artist’s identity. Therefore the English education not only profoundly altered art practice into a secular activity based on the individual talent, but also uprooted the painting from its caste base and replanted it in a  new class order. This adoption of painting within the middle class of anxiety aspirations is an important turn in understanding the dynamics of post colonial art practice in Jaffna.

Winsor Art club and the first generation of individual artists

 In 1938, the Winsor art club was established under the leadership of S.R.Kanagasabai, an art inspector of education with the support of W.E.Beling (a Dutch burgher by origin and inspector of art education) in the name of a chief inspector of art in the department of education, Ceylon, C.F.Winsor. The prime aim of this association was to train art teachers in Victorian ideals and some of the teachers who were trained under SRK became the first generation of Jaffna painters, K.Kanagasabapathy and Ampalavanar Rasiah were among them. Later K.Kanagasabapathy was trained in Colombo Technical College in painting. The academic realistic approach of the Winsor art club can be seen in the works of SRK, K.Kanagasabapathy, Ambalavanar Rasiah and K. Rajaratnam, which includes portrait, still life and landscape studies.

 A few years after the formation of the Winsor art club, with the influence of 19th century Indian revivalism followed by Rabindranath Tagore’s visit to Jaffna, the North Ceylon oriental music society (NCOMS) and Kala-niliyam were formed. These institutions were based on the idea of reviving local art, particularly the ‘high’art tradition in order to build the national identity. In the same period Kalaipulavar Navaratnam, the author of several books and articles on Indian/Sri Lankan/Tamilian art heritage, followed the lines of Ananda K.Coomaraswamy and put the art  historical writings in the service the of the nation building project. In his writings Kalaipulavar familiarizes the reinvented past among the educated middle class. It is important to note here that the 43 group the first most significant movement in art in post – traditional Sri Lanka also came into existence in the same period and S.R.K. and K.Kanagasabapathy were members in the early phase of this group (Krishnaraja, 1997). This contributed to the shift in approach from academic realism to the modern pictorial mode in the works of the first generation of Jaffna painters. The radical stance against the academic salon closely identified with colonialism and the European avant –grade was welcomed in South Asia as being more in sympathy with the oppressed (Mitter: 1995:10).

 As the members of 43 group S.R.K. K.Kanagasabapathy and Ambalavanar Rasaiah attempted to rephrase a selected number of modernist styles and the artistic approaches that flourished in France in the late 19th and early 20th century to embody the local landscapes and life styles. K.Kanagasabapathy (1915-1995) changed his earlier realistic mode of representation into a cubist mode. Bold Simplification and the division of space in his paintings show his conscious effort and experiments in search of a new pictorial language with the combination of local scenes and Picasso’s cubist style. Unlike Kanagasabapathy, his friend, Ambalavanar Rasaih (1926-1991) naively captured the spirit of the local landscape in a mixed style. His landscapes document the different atmospheric, climatic details of Sri Lanka and South India.
 The pictorial styles and thematic approaches of the first generation artists mark the maturing and public emergence of the individual artist with the designation, differentiated clearly from the traditional artisan and school art teachers.

Holiday painters group

 The Winsor art club came to an end in 1955 with the death of S.R.K. In 1959, the Holiday painters group was founded by a group of artists and art teachers which included, A. Mark, M.S.Kandaih, S.Ponnambalam and K. Selvanathan (Krishnaraja 1997: 6). The activities of this group are significant in two ways.

i. It trained the young generation in the field of painting and sculpture during the school vacation and holidays. Some of the students of this group later followed advanced studies in the Colombo Technical College.

ii. It helped to sustain the creative impulse of artists who served as school teachers by providing common studio space during holidays and organizing art exhibitions.

Initiations of the Holiday painters group provided the stepping stone for the development of art in the eighties.

Art of the eighties
 Jaffna became the epicenter for the heightened phase of political and cultural activity after the anti-Tamil riots in 1983 in Southern Sri Lanka. State suppression, the birth of Tamil nationalism and the emergence of militant politics let to the armed struggle to safeguard the Tamils aspirations and the Tamil homeland. Later in 1987 with the occupation of the ‘Indian Peace Keeping Force’ (IPKF) the situation became more explosive and complicated. As in politics, youth were in the forefront of cultural production, with cultural and students wings of various militant groups and the University of Jaffna. They participated with intense courage and dedication. The search for the  ‘new’ and ‘men of merit’ was the dominant sentiment with the intense Tamil consciousness, in the political, intellectual and aesthetic activity of this period.

 This was the time of revivalism in drama and literature. Links created by the rebels movements and cultural activities through the Palk strait, with Tamil Nadu, brought the flavor of art of Madras modern movement and modern Indian art, through the publications and prints; to the Jaffna coast. During the same time, in Madras, an exhibition was organized by Tamil Nadu artists V. Santhanam and Sam Adaikalasamy based on the Welikada massacre and 83 riots. Later a collection of Santhanam’s drawing also published by one of the Eelam Tamil rebel groups. The developments in politics and the artistic exposure became path setters to the development in the field of art in Jaffna.

 The first venture in 80s in painting came with the exhibition by three young women artists who trained under A.Mark and Sivapragasam. This was organized by the cultural group of Jaffna University in 1986 and it included the works of Arunthanthi, Suguna, and Nirmala. This exhibition exhibited a progressive structural change in the art scene, as it was firstly, the entry of a group of artist who were not art teachers, secondly, the entry of women artists bearing the identity of artist and thirdly the overwhelming response and support from the progressives. This created an atmosphere of recognition for artists and painting which I would say was something equal to rebels and the struggle for freedom during that time. Interestingly paintings of the Jaffna post traditional artists were on display at the exhibitions organized by various militant groups in order to display the nation.  This also indicates how the realities of war, started to deconstruct the ordinary Jaffna middle class psyche. It evoked enthusiasm among the youths to study art. But unfortunately the only available institution in Sri Lanka to study art, the Institute of Aesthetic Studies (IAS) in Colombo completely changed it’s medium of instruction into Sinhala in 1976, thus denying the rights of Tamils to study visual art. In this context the Holiday painters group got momentum and A.Mark was reinvented by the group of young students and little magazines.

 Mark’s paintings and his activities symbolized a transitional phase in the post traditional Jaffna painting and the dilemmas of a post-traditional painter. Starting as a realistic painter and a school teacher, Mark in the eighties localized the pictorial styles of modernist, specially of Picasso, George Keyt and the Indian painters like Jamini Roy and Satish Gujaral by handling local themes, through which he gained popularity and established the modern pictorial mode and individual artist against the popular academic realism, school teachers and sign board painters.  In a way Mark’s formalistic approach pre occupied with the idea of portraying the Tamil Nation, more specifically the making of his own identifiable pictorial style figurate the solidification of new Tamil identity which not only based on the cruelities of war but also in the past. Through his paintings on history, mythology and litature he reinvented and reconstructed the past to suite the present need. In a way, Mark in his paintings wants to be ‘traditional’ and ‘authentic’ and at the same time ‘modern’ and ‘different’. This is the dilemma shared by the most of post traditional painters of this region.

 Unlike any other artist of Jaffna through his well articulated talks and free art lessons, Mark managed to influence a good number of young artists and gain popularity among the art lovers. Paintings of the young painters like, Arunthathi, Vasuki, Kailasanathan and Nilanthan were sharply divided from their own past and the Colombo art scene interms of approach and content. These youngsters dismissed the popular idea of painting as beautiful, pleasurable and spiritual entity by handling themes such as  disappearance,  violence,  struggle and freedom. During these years art became a weapon to attack social injustice and an asylum for individuals who were forced to spend their teenage years in the presence of war. In their paintings artists expressed their optimism and sympathies towards the Tamil nation and their agitation against state suppression in an instant direct manner with the artist of the eighties the consciousness of the artist as a political individual came to the surface of art production. But on the other hand, at the end of the eighties, the whole notion of art making was preoccupied with the act of style making. Like in the high phase of modernism style became the indicator of an artist’s individual identity and in the local context it was also associated with the national or ethnic identity.

 Apart from the Holiday painters group there were some individuals active in art production in the eighties. M.Kanagasabai (b. 1925) from the first generation of painters, activated by the sea of changes in eighties, started working on his memory and the nostalgia for the past. In his paintings Kanagasabai documented the various aspects of cultural life which is in the stage of vanishing due to war and social change. Asai Rasiah (b. 1946) a victim of 83 Colombo riots, re-settled in Jaffna. His approach to painting falls into two categories, as his landscape paintings have been approached in a romantic way his figurative works have a social realistic sentiment in it. His refusal to do his earlier art teacher job and the decision to face the hardship of being a full time painter, make us realize that his paintings are the images of the artist’s romantic self.

Art of the nineties
 The situation created by the withdrawal of the Indian peace keeping force, the battle for the Jaffna fort, expansion of military’s high security zones into civilian areas in Palaly and Kankesanthurai and the neval control of the surrounding islands of Jaffna peninsula, uprooted the age old settlements from their soil. This let to an abnormality where most of the local inhabitants became refugees in their own land and people of different regions, histories and memory were forced to share a limited area within the peninsula. This created, what I would say, a collaged community and it was further stretched by the immigrations towards Colombo and western countries, and later by the mass exodus in 1995 which according  to the Jaffna government agents report displaced 500,000 people from their own land. This history of displacement and refugees alter the way in which one experience his/her own surrounding and therefore his/her self. Members of the same family having different nationalities, people of the same nationalities psychologically living in different geographical sites and even in the case of holding a permanent citizenship in an expatriate country these expatiates identify themself as Sri Lankan/Eelam Tamils: this seemed normal. Therefore the categories of identities based on nationality, geographical territory, collective history and memory became unreal and the co-existence of conflicting categories and space became real. In this context the older consciousness of belongingness and recognition which construct the notion of Tamil nation was replaced by the realities of surreal and collage. This feeling of mismatch constitutes common, mundane experience where the new consciousness of self is rooted in. It seems to me now that in the absence of earlier categories of collective identities, despite of all differences, the agency of making the nation is relocated in the plain of pain, suffering and nostalgia of individual as a victim. As Ernest Renan (1998:81) explains, “what one really understands is despite differences in having suffered together – indeed common suffering is greater than happiness”. Hence the impotency of the personal history gaining prominence in the way of collectively painting the image of nation or collectively feeling the image of nation.

 Many of the younger generation of artists of the eighties too migrated to western countries and India for political, economical and educational reasons in the nineties. These immigrations changed the societal socialization of these artists and opened possibilities in art training, which they found difficult at home, and new exposure to the art world which creates new challenges.

 Self investigation and meaning of identity in a war or exile situation became a prime issue in the pluralistic approaches of the nineties in painting. R. Vaidhehi who is now living in India, in her works, questions the notion of identity in Sri Lankan ethnically polarized society and sees how the Tamil identity is exchanged, valued, devalued and handled by the Sri Lankan state as paper documents, through the collages  of various documents, identity cards, police registration and so on which is necessary to live as a Tamil in any part of Sri Lanka, she shows, how we live in a world of collages of documents and how one’s inner individuality is being erased and denied through the process of proving or defining one’s own physical self and location.  

 The works which she did in India again depict the mindscape of a stranger in a jungle of buildings. In most of Vaidehi’s recent works, one can notice that the images become more and more like her self portrait and have an innate feeling of loneliness and strangeness.

 Shanaathanan, in his surrealist picture space building up his personal myth, narratives and history in connection with abnormalities of his surrounding, unlike the earlier generation of artists who painted the same contents as a project of reinventing the past and building up a national identity. His paintings and etchings express the pain and suffering of being a suspect and a stranger in his own society in the absence or uncertainty of home. In his paintings too, his own body became the site of reference for chaos of the society as Foucault explain the body is the ‘site’ in which all forms of repression are ultimately registered. (as quoted in Harvey 1990:45) . His recent works explore the relationship between the construction of identity and both physical and psychological location by sometime recoiling and sometime juxtaposing the human anatomy and maps of different kinds. To depict the collaged society and the dislocation of self he uses collaged and tailored maps. His painting can be seen as visible or invisible presences of the painter’s own self as an eye witness of the social calamities.

 Sivaruban’s paintings also express the helpless, victimized, lonely self in a surreal situation. If Shanaathanan brings the surreal nature to his painting by juxtaposing the unreal together, Sivaruban bring that with the play of scale and proportions of different images and their schematic relationship which producing forms as idiosyncratic and undigested.

 Therefore in the works of Vaidhehi, Shanaathanan and Sivaruban there is an autobiographical attitude. The following observation on nineties Sri Lankan art of Jegath Weerasighe come closer to locate the works of above artists, the interesting thing is that what happens here is the alignment of personal pains with those of the society and this, the artist portrays himself/herself as the suffering individual on behalf of others implying a self – inflicted vicarious punishment. Consequently, these are collections of art that shows subtle, but strong signs of autobiographical narratives. These auto biographical narratives usually hold or tell us of a character that is desolate and dismal yet sanguine or of a character that is struggling with some sort of bondage a captivity and a perplexity whose location and position is not yet defined, but being defined (Weerasinghe : 2004).

 Both Nanda Kandasamy (Canada) and Anusiya (Ireland) in their works reinforce the notion of home as a form of relationship, connections, sharing and nostalgia for them home is not the land in which they live now,. but the land they lost or were made to lose. Nanda Kandasamy’s one work made out of collaging the letters which he received from home during the high time of war; letters were the only mode of communication available during the time of war and that too with lots of constraints and delays. This personal material is made into public, by the process of art making. For Anusiya the unbroken infinite lines in her minimalist drawing represent her thread of connection with the ‘home; which is uprooted, stolen, dislocated and destroyed.

  Arunthathi’s and Vasuki’s works try to build women’s identity by exploring the role of women in a man dominated world and art practice. Arunthathi like a women folk artist tries to juxtapose her deep inclination towards traditional designs with the representation of subtle moments of living. Her approaches give a feminine nature to her paintings. Unlike Arunthathi’s effortless free line based works, Vasuki’s paintings make a political statement. They show us how Vasuki, as a self conscious woman reads her own self and the world.

 While the formalism of eighties continues in the works of Kailasanathan, Nilanthan and Karuna (Canada), most of the other artists’ works of the nineties exhibit a drastic change in approach and the quality of expression. Earlier direct, literal expression gives way to nuance and layers of feeling in which mundane and ordinary became important. In short it moves from the meta-narratives of Sri Lankan and then Tamil nationalism to a layer of experiencing the ordinary of them. This led to a situation where the conscious effort of search for personal pictorial style gives way to accepting and realizing the artist’s own self and ways and which are being made visible. Here the understanding the process of constructing the self and the identity became the main concern of these artists. Here the act of art making became more important than the finished product. Therefore I argue that the medium of collage which most of artists practiced in the nineties use, metaphoric and symbolic functions as a vehicle of expression and the meaning or in other way it is functioning both as signifier and signified.

 At the end of the nineties, the University of Jaffna started a degree course in art and design with lots of hope and hardships in addition to the art history discipline which was introduced with the revivalism of the eighties.
 
 Conclusion

 In their researches on artistic careers and the labor market social scientists point out that the artistic career is risky and poorly paid. (Alexander 2003:134). In his book on North and East Sri Lankan economy, Nithiyanantham observed that in the failure of establishing the colonial economic structure of northern and eastern parts of Sri Lanka on cash crops, as in the case of Southern Sri Lanka by the colonial raj, the introduction of education was linked with the catering to the government employment market in Jaffna, which placed professions like doctors and engineers on the top (Nithiyananthan, 2003). The above observations help us to understand the status and the role of ‘insecure’ artist in the Jaffna middle class. Further in the post-traditional societies individualization of artist is also associated with commercialization and commodification of art work, and in the post colonial societies it also directly or indirectly is connected with the emerging nationalist sentiments. Even though a few of the artist about whom I have discussed above partly operating with the galleries outside Jaffna and manage to sell their works, most of others are still away from the art mediators. The situation is not much different even in the case of Jaffna painters who live abroad. Since most of them still identify themselves as artists of Jaffna, and each of them lives in isolation in various parts of the world their activities and art production stay away from the general artistic culture of the country they live in. Therefore it seems to me that being an artist in the Jaffna community itself is a quite rebellious act. As Suzi Gablik observed being an artist has always meant maintaining a certain independence of mind and not adapting to competitive performances required for well being under the established system even at the cost of intense personal sacrifice (Gablik 1984:70).

 The above observations well place in context my argument that the intention behind art production in Jaffna is consciously or unconsciously associated with the idea of framing / reframing the identity of artist individual, rather than the material benefits, fame and hobby. Stuart Hall says, cultural identities are the points of identification, the unstable points of identification or suture, which are made within the discourses of history and culture. Not an essence, but a positioning. Hence, there is always a politics of identity, a political position (Hall: 1997:113).

 The political position of the Jaffna artist’s self is closely linked more with the political development in Sri Lanka, than with the developments in the field of art. The first generation of artists displaying the dual identity emerged from the conflict of colonialism and nationalism, by deploying the Victorian ideals to portray the local scenes. The second generation positions it in an anti colonial stand, which they did by reinventing the tradition and other anti colonial mode of expressions. But in the early phase of Tamil nationalism artists were tried to imbibe some of the attitudes of Indian and Sri Lankan counterparts by relocating the styles and themes of past for their present need. Interestingly the younger generation of artists who represent the nineties pluralistic approach move away from the nationalist romantic imaginative narration of past. The true realities of civil war which this generation was forced to face, made them rethink the earlier notion of identity and the process of making them visible. This made them stand on their present and ordinary Paradoxically the deepening consciousness of identity, in society in general and the artist in particular, coincided with the lose of earlier categories of identity based on collective history, memory geographical territory and nationality in Tamil society due to war and displacements. This leads to the situation of identity similar to Harvey’s explanation on the post modern situation: the co existence in an impossible space of large number of fragmentary possible worlds or more simply incommensurable spaces that are juxtaposed or superimposed upon each other (Harvey 1990:48). This location of the artist’s self in a collided, dislocated, collaged space influences the ceaseless metamorphosis of artist image into surrealistic image. 

Notes

  1.John Clark in his article on Asian Modernisms argued modernity invents it self every where, it is required for a new relativization of the pasts of any given culture or group of culture. The principal condition is that these cultures need to and are incapable of carrying out this relativization (quoted in Weerasinghe : 2000) Hence to avoid the confusion by using the word modern, I am here using it as post traditional.

  According to Turner the concept status describes the position of an actor within the social structure, in particular in so far as this position is ranked as superior or inferior to other positions. The concept of role describes patterned expectations about and performance of action by groups of actors interacting with each other (Turner : 2003 : 107)

  2. Raja Raviverma (1848-1906) is a prime aspiration in the Indian artists’ passage to the modern; he is at the same time an obvious anachronism of the period. Handling this contradiction with poise, he joins the ranks of the anomalous figures in India’s 19th century cultural renaissance who see their task in the same terms – of materializing through western techniques, the idea of a golden past and then inducting this into a national project (Kapur 1995).

  3. According to the made in IAS, Exhibition catalogue (2000). The earliest inception of course in Drawing and Painting was at the Maradana Technical College in 1896. In 1949 the art courses were moved to a new house at Horton place known as Haywood. In 1952, the art courses were formally constituted within an institute titled Government College of Arts’ It gained its current University status in 1974 under the name of Institute of Aesthetic studies (IAS), until recent times this was the only art institution in Sri Lanka to study visual arts.

  4.  Modern artist, sign board painters, illustrators, commercial artist cartoonist and art teachers were all treated same without considering the different intention and need behind them under the common label as artist in the early writings on Jaffna painting. It also symbolically re presents the popular conception of art and the artist in Jaffna society. 

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