Important Notice

Despite coming of age as an artist in France in the 1960s, where geometrical styles and abstraction loomed large, Sakti Burman’s work has consistently been drawn to the figure. The artist has said of its appeal, “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... Despite coming of age as an artist in France in the 1960s, where geometrical styles and abstraction loomed large, Sakti Burman’s work has consistently been drawn to the figure. The artist has said of its appeal, “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, Mumbai: Pundole Art Gallery and Chennai: Apparao Galleries, 2012, p. 62) His works teem with disparate human, animal, and fantastical figures, an echo of the densely peopled household he grew up in. Burman draws on dream and memory, myth and reality. He is in the habit of constantly sketching people he encounters at cafes, airports, beaches, pools, and on his travels as a form of visual note?taking. Says Burman of this practice, “At the airport I make sketches of the fliers who arrive hours before the flights or of the tired transit passengers taking a rest or fast asleep on the couches or leisurely gossipping with fellow travellers or idly reading books or newspapers. These sketches are like notes I make while I am travelling or sitting in a cafe.” (The artist quoted in Singh, p. 51)

These characters, once recorded, tend to show up in his works as faces, forms or simply in outline alongside gods, goddesses and creatures of myth like in the present lot. This work, a 2015 oil on canvas, exemplifies his style which merges several realms in dreamlike exuberance with his signature marbling technique reminiscent of Italian frescoes by masters like Giotto, Piero della Francesca, and Simone Martini. Around the edges of the work are many commonplace figures engaged in acts of revelry with their arms lifted high. Burman imbues each of these figures with a sense of movement as if they are dancing to a lively beat. It could likely be a nod to the celebratory atmosphere of his home growing up, where festivals were highly anticipated with the house given a fresh coat of paint and women drawing alpanas on the floor. Dancing figures feature heavily in a key childhood memory. Burman was entranced by the groom’s procession arriving for his elder sister, where the groom and his elephant were preceded by spectacularly outfitted musicians and revellers. He still recounted the grand event years later, “Till now I think it was the most beautiful procession of musicians that I have ever seen. Now whenever I happen to be present at a session of spirituals of New Orleans, an instant trip down memory lane takes me back to the musicians of my village.” (The artist quoted in “Roots Into A Splendid Crown”, Manasij Majumder, Sakti Burman: Dreamer on the Ark, Mumbai: Pundole Art Gallery, 2001) Burman acknowledged the centrality of remembrance to his practice, “My childhood memories are always there, mixed up with the realities of the day. In creative art, the role of memory is a recognized fact.” (The artist quoted in Majumder, p. 49)

Mythology is an important influence on Sakti Burman. This painting is named for the Hindu goddess Durga who dominates the frame, attired resplendently in red. Burman presents her in her magnificent many?armed form worshipped with great joy and fervour throughout his native Bengal during the Durga Puja festival. One of her arms holds the god Ganesha who is seated in her lap. By pairing the two deities together Burman alludes to his own experience of Durga Puja as a child where he would see people dressed as Lord Ganesha celebrating with the revellers. Next to them stands the god Krishna in radiant blue with his flute poised as if he is about to play, adding to the celebratory atmosphere. At the back stands the ten?headed Ravana, the antagonist of the Hindu epic Ramayana whose images in illustrated children’s books Burman was drawn to as a young boy.

Burman excels at bringing the real and fantastical together on a timeless plane to create works full of surreal wonder. The critic Kishore Singh remarks on his remarkable ability to distill his various influences into works of singular vitality, “And because he believes that ‘an artist must surprise himself each time’, he would take remembered images and put them in different time frames, disorient the viewer with the unexpected, juxtaposing gods and neighbourhood children, iconic figures and family members, such that it would become impossible to remove the real from the imagined. It was like theatre and the props followed—magical gardens with statues in them, circuses, mirrors, comedians and magicians, figures from India and European legends, the Sacre?Couer and the Taj Mahal…” (Singh, p. 57)

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