Important Notice

Born in Calcutta, Sakti Burman grew up at his grandparents’ farmhouse in the village of Bidyakut, now in Bangladesh. The artist left India for France at the age of twenty three and has lived there since, but strongly believes that, even today, the memories of his early years in India shape his paintings to a great extent. “My childhood memories are always there, mixed up with the realities of the day. In creative art, the role of memory is a... Born in Calcutta, Sakti Burman grew up at his grandparents’ farmhouse in the village of Bidyakut, now in Bangladesh. The artist left India for France at the age of twenty three and has lived there since, but strongly believes that, even today, the memories of his early years in India shape his paintings to a great extent. “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. But in my case, that of a painter working in a foreign city a vast distance away from his native milieu, memory is doubly potent in sustaining creative life” (the artist quoted in Manasij Majumder, Sakti Burman: Dreamer on the Ark, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai, 2001, p. 49).

In Burman’s iridescent images, then, reality, fantasy and memory play an equal role. On the artist’s vivid canvases, one finds mythical creatures and medieval jesters portrayed alongside members of his own family, all bringing alive an enchanting world where the real and the imagined coexist. In this lost paradise, where all creatures dwell in harmony, comely maidens walk alongside children astride elephants, and fruit laden trees and exotic flowers shelter birds and beasts of all varieties. Each work is captivating, luminescent and delicate. As Burman explains, “My work attempts to recreate, reflect and represent an enchanted world where the memory of the real, fantasy and legend have a direct relation to the present moment as well as tradition” (Ibid.).

Frequently referred to as an ‘alchemist of dreams’, Burman’s otherworldly images like the present lot, a portrait of a harlequin or medieval French clown and a female admirer, are thus condensed through both experience and imagination. “Each of Sakti’s canvases looks as finished as a meticulous filigree work. He creates a chequered chromatic surface of visual splendour by means of a dense network of varied tones and textures charged in every detail with strong but disciplined aesthetic stimulation” (Ibid., p. 10).

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