Reality meets dreams in Sakti Burman Paintings. He manages to capture the essence of these two intangibles in his paintings, with equal adroitness. His paintings essentially talk about memories that have colored his imagination and have become a part of his everyday reality. The beauty and the color of rural Bengal (where he was brought up), is mirrored in most of his frames, even though he spent most of his life in France.
“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 the creative life," he says.
Sakti Burman –his life
Sakti Burman was born in Calcutta in 1935. He grew up in what is now Bangladesh. He went to Paris to learn art and after graduating from Paris, Burman returned to India to understand Indian art with a new perspective, he wanted to reattach with the tradition of the art and the culture of his native land. He visited Ajanta, Ellora, Amaravati and Konark, and his style is truly affected by the masterly creations that are to be found in these hallowed places. He has lived most of his life in France, but has managed to maintain strong ties with India, where he regularly exhibits his work. He has held several exhibitions of his work in India, and elsewhere, and has won several prizes.
Sakti Burman-his Paintings
Sakti Burman is often described as an ‘Alchemist of Dreams’ because of his ability to blend different influences to create a composite whole. One can see the diffusive blend of the Italian fresco tradition and the classical Ajanta cave murals in India in his paintings. A fantastical world of his childhood fantasies, where flowers, trees, birds and imaginary anthropomorphic creatures co-exist in perfect harmony is recreated in his colorful paintings.
Sakti Burman uses contemporary colors and the execution of many of his paintings reminds one of French tapestry, which is why it is often said his paintings are illustrative. That may be partly true but it does not take away anything from the aesthetic value of his works. They are and always will be one of the most joyous celebrations of fantasy and reality.
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