Important Notice

“If there is one thing I would say about my paintings, I would say I paint hope.” - SAKTI BURMAN

This painting by Sakti Burman, much like the rest of his body of work, is a celebration of figuration that abounds with people-together and apart; standing, lounging, dancing, reading, and in deep meditation on their surroundings. Brought up in a household brimming with humanity, Burman finds it necessary to centre his practice around... “If there is one thing I would say about my paintings, I would say I paint hope.” - SAKTI BURMAN

This painting by Sakti Burman, much like the rest of his body of work, is a celebration of figuration that abounds with people-together and apart; standing, lounging, dancing, reading, and in deep meditation on their surroundings. Brought up in a household brimming with humanity, Burman finds it necessary to centre his practice around the human figure. He speaks of their importance to him, “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) He draws inspiration from his experiences. Burman has long been in the habit of constantly sketching from life, whether he is at a cafe, the beach or in transit. This practice allows him to ruminate on his observations, with some of the figures showing up in his finished larger works in parts or as a whole. He describes his sketchbook as being akin to a writer’s notebook, “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)

Memory is another important source of inspiration for Burman. He explains how being away from his homeland rendered his reminiscences even more powerful, “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 “Roots Into A Splendid Crown”, Manasij Majumder, Sakti Burman: Dreamer on the Ark, Mumbai: Pundole Art Gallery, 2001, p. 49) His childhood home was frequently alight with revelry. Festivals and weddings were celebrated with great pomp, with the drawing of alpanas on the floor and music reverberating in the air. Celebratory processions, full of people dancing with gay abandon, impressed themselves upon the artist as a young boy. We can see the echo of such processions in the gaiety of the dancing young woman in green on whom the painting is almost centred.

The beautiful marbling here is a hallmark of Burman’s style. He chanced upon it by accident when he spilled water on a wash of paint. He recounts that fateful day, “One day, late in the evening, as I was working at home, a drop of water fell on a passage of thick wash... Instantly the pigment layer broke into hundreds of tiny particles creating a surface of marvellous iridescent texture.” (Artist quoted in Singh, p. 50) The effect he developed is fittingly reminiscent of Italian frescoes as he is deeply influenced by great fresco artists of the Renaissance like Raphael and Fra Angelico.

The dreamlike atmosphere of the work is the result of Burman’s choice to place his disparate influences together and letting the subjects of his daily fascination, characters from mythology and fragments of his childhood memories play against each other on an even field. Art critic Kishore Singh clarifies how Burman’s canny juxtaposition enlivens his work, “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 Sacré-Coeur and the Taj Mahal...” (Singh, p. 57)

Read More
Artist Profile
Other works of this artist in: this auction  |  entire site