For Seekers Of Meaning
Travel Sketches from Sri Lanka

Reinhard Kleist’s strokes carry authority. His art lies in omitting; often also in expanding, curving, wearing away, keeping it rough. He shows temples, shrines, a bar or bakery, street scenes, bicycles, a naked light bulb illuminating a Buddha. Is this Sri Lanka, 2017?

Extracts from "Reiseskizzen aus Sri Lanka":

About the artist Reinhard Kleist:

His most successful works include ‘Cash – I See a Darkness’, ‘The Boxer’ and ‘An Olympic Dream’. He has won the Max & Moritz Prize for the best German-language comic book artist and the German Children’s Literature Award for non-fiction.

Travelpedia: Sri Lanka

© Reinhard Kleist (Detail)
In 1516, the capital, Colombo, was occupied by the Dutch. In 1518, Portugal also wanted the island as a colony; between 1796 and 1948, it was under British occupation.
© Reinhard Kleist (Detail)
A tsunami in 2004 killed 45,000 people. Sonali Deranyiagala’s memoir essay about the catastrophe “Wave”, which became a bestseller in the USA in 2013, is recommended.
© Reinhard Kleist (Detail)
Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Islam: ‘Sri Lanka’ (population: 20 million) means ‘venerable island’. It lies 200 kilometres off the southern tip of India. Between 1983 and 2009, a civil war raged between the Sinhalese and the Tamils, the island’s largest ethnic minority.

Stefan Mesch about Travel Sketches from Sri Lanka

Kleist’s 14 (often double-page) Sri Lanka drawings come particularly close to the aesthetic of several Kleist comic books: pronounced shadows, male bodies and faces, twilight. A good introduction!"

Review

More Comics for seekers of meaning

"Ticket to God"

It is a ‘strange city’ that Jens Harder and his readers head for in his story ‘Ticket to God’. A city that unites yet also divides as no other. Destroyed, disputed and divided, yet home to three of the world’s major religions that coexist here: Jerusalem.

"India Travel Sketches"

In December 2017, Reinhard Kleist spent a month in India on the invitation of the Goethe-Institut. He appeared for live drawing sessions, workshops and readings in Pune, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and New Delhi, and he participated in DeCAF, Delhi’s first Comic Arts Festival. He also visited the Taj Mahal, Kovalam, Jaipur and Pune. In this conversation, he tells the stories behind his “India Travel Sketches.”

„The Vanished Path“

The Indian comic artist Bharath Murthy converted to Buddhism in 2009 and processed his pilgrimage to the old places of work of the religious founder Siddhartha Gautama into a graphic travel report "The Vanished Path".

More about Graphic Travelogues

About the artists

Learn more about our well-known artists, including Barbara Yelin, Reinhard Kleist and Sarnath Banerjee. All with proven comic expertise and sometimes with more, sometimes with less travel experience in the respective country.

About Graphic Travelogues

Graphic Travelogues presents travel experiences by comic artists from different countries, illuminates and identifies recurring topics. From sketches to graphic novels, graphic diaries and travel drawings, we collect treasures here and question concepts and motivations, techniques and experiences.

Top

For Seekers Of Meaning Travel Sketches from Sri Lanka