SAKTI BURMAN

 

Sakti Burman graduated from the Calcutta College of Art and Crafts in 1956. He studied at École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts in Paris, visiting Italy frequently and becoming inspired by the artworks of the Renaissance period. Primarily Sakti Burman is known as a painter and his works evoke the look of a weathered fresco. Burman uses a marbling effect, achieved by blending oils with acrylics, and employs pointillism to apply paint. His sculptural works are almost three-dimensional translations of his paintings. The works have a lyrical quality, creating a world of fantasy, fable and poetic harmony. Burman recruits the protagonists of his dreamlike, allegorical paintings from many sources – Greek and Hindu mythology, Biblical narratives and mediaeval European passion plays, puppet theatre, scroll painting, the Mughal and Rajput miniature ateliers, and Kalighat. He draws, also, on his own family, showing his grandchildren at play with mythic creatures.

Burman has lived between France and India since the mid-1950s, and held numerous solo exhibitions in India, France, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and the USA. His solo exhibitions with Art Musings include Of Gods and Men, 2021; The Beholder’s Share, 2016; and Enraptured Gaze 2009.  Art Musings presented a retrospective of Sakti Burman, In The Presence of Another Sky, in 2017 at the prestigious NGMA, Mumbai, featuring over 250 artworks, curated by cultural theorist Ranjit Hoskote. A book by the same title released alongside the retrospective. Burman’s works are included in the collections of many major museums and cultural institutions, including the British Museum, London; the Musée de la Ville, Paris; the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi; the National Gallery, Auckland; the Punjab Museum, Chandigarh; the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai; and the French Ministry of Culture, Paris. Burman has received many honours, including the Prix des Étrangers, École des Beaux-Arts, Paris; the Medaille Arts, Science et Lettres, Paris; the Medaille d’Or, Salon des Artistes Français, Grand Palais, Paris; and the Prix de la Ville de l’Isle-Adam, France. In 2016, the Government of France conferred on him the country’s highest civilian honour, the knighthood of the Légion d’Honneur. The artist lives and works in India and France.

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