Important Notice

"I made several attempts to give up figurative forms…but the impulse to continue painting figures, to focus on humans, their feelings, their myths and legends, proved too strong" (The artist quoted in Kishore Singh, "All Aboard the Ark of Sakti Burman's Dreamworld", Sakti Burman: The Wonder of It All, Pundole Art Gallery and Apparao Galleries, 2012, pg. 62).

On numerous occasions, Sakti has portrayed his family in his paintings,... "I made several attempts to give up figurative forms…but the impulse to continue painting figures, to focus on humans, their feelings, their myths and legends, proved too strong" (The artist quoted in Kishore Singh, "All Aboard the Ark of Sakti Burman's Dreamworld", Sakti Burman: The Wonder of It All, Pundole Art Gallery and Apparao Galleries, 2012, pg. 62).

On numerous occasions, Sakti has portrayed his family in his paintings, fusing myth and fantasy with the real and contemporary. In the present lot, Matthieu, his first born, is playing the flute for Goddess Durga. Gods and Goddesses often appear anglicised in his works; here, Durga is seen in Western garb, recognisable by her headgear which is seen during Puja in many pandals in Kolkata, and her arms. Burman borrows from Indian iconography and manipulates the imagery to create his own surrealist world inhabited by disparate characters and tangential narratives. The characters surrounding the two central figures-Matthieu and Durga-though harmonious, appear to exist almost oblivious of the other's presence. The woman on the swing has featured in prior works, and could possibly be an allusion to Burman's wife, Maïté. The crouched man, lost deep in thought, could be the artist himself. Commenting on this, he once jested, "…sometimes I make a better model than others." When viewed in context of the painting, these familiar characters occupy a parallel, fictitious world full of possibilities.

Writer B.N. Goswamy comments, "…Sakti fills his works with what appears to be a miscellany of figures and situations, with a clear intent. And that intent is to ask the viewer to fill the spaces between his figures with his/her own thoughts; make connections if possible, or read states of mind, bringing his/her own baggage and repertoire of images and then bending it to that task" (Sakti Burman: The Wonder of it All, Pundole Art Gallery and Apparao Galleries Exhibition Catalogue, New Delhi, 2012, pg.7)

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