Important Notice

Sakti Burman's paintings often evoke a surrealist feel, referencing multiplicities of time and place.The prominent female figure in the present lot might draw from 16th century European art but the weathered, fresco-like technique harks back to much earlier times. Burman's art drew extensively from Hindu and European mythology, as well as from the artist's own memories. Suggesting surrealism, his paintings are populated by humans, animals and... Sakti Burman's paintings often evoke a surrealist feel, referencing multiplicities of time and place.The prominent female figure in the present lot might draw from 16th century European art but the weathered, fresco-like technique harks back to much earlier times. Burman's art drew extensively from Hindu and European mythology, as well as from the artist's own memories. Suggesting surrealism, his paintings are populated by humans, animals and cityscapes that are dreamlike in appearance. His defining oeuvre owes largely to his technique of marbling, which he arrived at after years of experimentation. Burman travelled to Italy in 1958 and his encounter with the frescoes of Giotto, Piero de la Francesca and Simone Martini inspired him to assimilate their monumentality and textures in his works. Critic Kishore Singh suggests that Burman's marbling technique was serendipitous, observing that "instead of just painting over [the painting] once it had dried, he continued to experiment, and liked... the colouration this resulted in, an ode to a passing age and a sense of gentle ageing that suited his sensibilities. The mural-like effect appeared first within the figures; it would later become part of the background as well." (B N Goswamy, Kishore Singh, Mrinal Ghosh eds., Sakti Burman: The Wonder of It All, Mumbai: Pundole Art Gallery and Apparao Galleries, 2012, p. 49)

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