Varuni Hunt (née Pieris) was born in Kandy, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1909 and was first educated in Paris. In 1933, Hunt immigrated to London, England to further her art education, subsequently establishing herself as a painter and and as stained glass artist with a particular interest in religious subjects.
Artist Varuni Hunt (née Pieris) was born in Kandy, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1909. Her father, Louis H.S. Pieris, and her mother, Selina De Soysa, a painter, provided Hunt with her first painting lessons. Her paternal grandfather was the philanthropist C.H. De Soysa. While still in Ceylon, Hunt received further training from the internationally renowned Ceylonese painter David Shillingford Paynter, who was of English-Ceylonese heritage and had received his art training at the Royal Academy Schools in London. Despite her family’s opposition to her studying abroad, Hunt initially moved to Paris to pursue her art education. She later immigrated to London, England in 1933, studying at the Slade School of Fine Art, University of London, and the Royal College of Art (RCA), where she was elected an Associate (ARCA).
In her early years in England, Hunt attracted a significant number of patrons, drawn to her vibrant studies of children, rendered in mediums such as charcoal, watercolour, and a delicate sanguine red, as well as portraits of adults. Her strikingly colourful paintings and portraits swiftly gained attention within the British art world, characterised by loose brushwork and a focus on colour and texture, rather than precise detail. Her rich and vibrant palette created a sense of vitality, with often blurred and soft edges evoking a dreamlike quality, suggesting Impressionist influences and favouring emotional depth over realistic representation. By the late 1950s, Hunt began working with stained glass and explored its potential for colour, influenced by her experiences in Ceylon, with its landscape of vivid hues, finding that glass could produce a brilliance akin to that of jewellery. Her career gained momentum back in England when she was commissioned to design two 10-foot-tall windows for the Church of Our Lady of Sorrows in Liverpool, marking the first time an Asian artist’s work was featured in a Christian place of worship in the UK.
Hunt regularly exhibited in the UK. In 1942, her portrait titled Grace English was shown at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. In 1954, she secured first place in a sculpting competition for a bronze of a dancer, later reproduced as an award for ballroom dancing competitions. The prize itself was presented to her by the émigré sculptor, Sir Jacob Epstein. In 1956, she participated in a group show at the Hammersmith Art Gallery. The gallery was ‘designed for artists whose circumstances do not permit the hiring of a prominent art gallery for the exhibition of his or her work,’ (Kensington Post, 1956, p. 3). In the same year, she marriedJohn Hunt, a distinguished concert pianist, whom she had met at the house of the High Commissioner of Ceylon. The couple subsequently spent much of their married life at Holland House on Melbury Road, close to Holland Park. In 1957, she held a solo exhibition at nearby Leighton House, which was opened by Princess Fahrelnissa Zeid, a Turkish abstract painter married to the Iraqi ambassador. The same year, possibly at her exhibition, Hunt was photographed with the Nigerian artist Ben Enwonwu, whose work is represented in the Ben Uri Collection.
In 1960, Tokyo University of Arts invited Hunt to exhibit her work, showcasing her stained glass windows, oil paintings, drawings, and sculptures. Following the exhibition, she and her husband relocated to Japan and toured the country. During her time in Japan, Hunt designed stained glass windows for two churches: 14 Stations of the Cross for St. Ignatius Church in Tokyo and 21 windows for the Priory Church of St. Anselm, which visually interpreted biblical passages selected by the Benedictine Fathers. Despite her deep passion for the medium, she described working with glass as a form of self-torture, which she pursued, nevertheless, to ensure her creations would endure. Posthumously, in 2002, an exhibition of her drawings, paintings, and stained glass was held at the Sapumal Foundation in Colombo, Sri Lanka. In accordance with her wishes, the proceeds from sales were used to support the development of fine arts in Sri Lanka. In 2021, the Sapumal Foundation began constructing a gallery to house the remainder of her oeuvre.
In addition to her art practice, Hunt was also a dancer and poet. Later in life, Hunt lived in Rome, Paris, and Dublin before eventually returning to London. She wore a saree throughout her life and was remembered by friends for her positivity, spirituality, and as an attentive listener. Varuni Hunt died in London, England on 15 August 2001 and is buried at Tooting Cemetery. Although her works are not represented in any UK public collection, a portrait of her by East Anglian painter, Cedric Morris, is held in the collection of Gainsborough House in Sudbury, Suffolk.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Varuni Hunt ]
Publications related to [Varuni Hunt ] in the Ben Uri Library