H. A Karunaratne obtained his formal art education in the Government
College of Fine Arts, Colombo from 1952 –1958 majoring in
painting and drawing. He spent 3 year at the Tokyo National University
of Fine Arts and Music as a foreign research student under Japanese
government scholarship from 1959- 1961. He was awarded the Fullbright
Award where he studied at the Pratt Institute in New Youk, USA.
He joined the Institute of Aesthetic Studies in 1975 as a lecturer
where he has been teaching until 1989 and have been the mentor
to number of prominent younger artists in the contemporary art
scene in Sri Lanka. H. A. Karunaratne has been instrumental in
introducing and popularizing the American expressionism among
the artists community in Sri Lanka and his influence has been
felt through out the generations of artists.
H. A. Karunaratne is one of the most senior artists living in
Sri Lanka and he has shown his work extensively in Sri Lanka and
internationally. He has lso taken part in number of international
events such as the South Asian Festival of Culture, National Gallery
of Modern Art in New Delhi, India (1981), 2nd Asian Art Show,
Fukuoka Art Museum in Japan (1985), 3rd Asian Art Biennale, Bangladesh
(1989) and 3rd Asian Art Show and Fukuoka Art Museum in Japan
(1989) to name a few. He has also received many awards and in
1994 was awarded the prestigious title Kala Suri Award and in
1996 Wishwa Prasadini Award by the government of Sri Lanka.
