His art is deeply interlaced with mythic elements, romanticism and fantasy content. Dipped in rich colours, it also arrests the avid art gazers all the more. Often dubbed an “Alchemist of Dreams”, eminent painter and lithographer Sakti Burman is a well-known Paris-based artist of Indian origin. His experiences as a young painter in France and his frequent trips to Italy and exposure to its Renaissance fresco works have indelibly influenced his evolution over the five long decades that he’s been dabbling in art.
An uninterrupted sneak peek of his repertoire will disclose his salient trait of skilfully blending the Italian style with the classical Buddhist imageries of the wonderful Ajanta-Ellora cave murals of Maharashtra in India to create a realm where mysticism, fable and poetry coalesce to engender an individualistic signature touch. Add to this, the Mother Nature’s cornucopia of flowers, trees, birds and the fictitious anthropomorphic creatures that co-exist in perfect harmony. To the uninitiated, Burman was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata) way back in 1935. To this day, the noted painter indefatigably continues to stupefy the innumerable art aficionados, patrons and critics around the world. Currently, a retrospective exhibition of his works is on display at Kolkata’s iconic Victoria Memorial in its Portrait Gallery as well as the Entrance Hall premises. Titled “The Wonder of it All,” the collection showcases many of the artist’s prominent works — with its recurrent themes like freezing of memories, images, dreams and impressions; the surrealistic and fantastic assortments of figures; transitions between reality and fantasy and an unending celebration of life plus its beauty. The exhibition shall remain open till April 29 from 10 am to 5 pm. Incidentally, the City of Joy marks the third haven for his gallery splurge, after travelling to Delhi and Mumbai. The final destination to unfold his festival of colours will however be down South Chennai.
“The last time I remember having a show in this cultural capital was in 2004-05 at the well-esteemed Birla Academy of Art and Culture,” recalls the age-defying creator who swears to tick away his twilight years with his palette and the brush. A diligent alumnus of the prestigious Government College of Art and Crafts, Kolkata, Burman reveals to imbibe themes and patterns from his immediate surroundings only. “There’s no dearth of inspiration around you, as long as you don’t keep your senses wide shut. You may import ideas and subjects while talking, travelling, waiting at the airport for your scheduled flight or see a signalled train departing or arriving aside a railway-station platform — I mean the daily life, its pragmatic affairs, its prosaic truths and trading transactions are like a mobile theatre. There is enough prospect of a dramatic sequence and powerful characters to emerge from this unwritten script,” opines the septuagenarian. While his ongoing retrospective array unveils his earlier works from the 1950s’ era, including his exploring stint in Paris, followed with the retro period of the 1960s and the 70s, till tapering down to the 1980s. “Those works are a perfect throwback at the redolent times of my hey-days, when I was on the brink of my prime. My creative cauldron would then be profuse with unrestrained subjects, ready to be unleashed on a blank, white canvas,” he muses. Some of the pieces depict a string of small drawings, done as a schoolgoer in Kolkata and afterwards in Paris. The eye-catching line-up is also clubbed with some of his very recent works, delineated in water chromes and dark pastel shades. The exotic Europe and the familiar India are always fused in his imagination to enter his sphere of creativity. One may find a streak of mixed cultures in Burman’s works. For example, the Noah’s Ark (a vessel appearing in the holy Book of Genesis from the sacred Hebrew Bible text and the Christian Old Testament. It is also mentioned in the holy Quran) and the demon-killing deity — Goddess Durga — are co-existent on the same canvas of one of his paintings. Consciously or unconsciously, he weaves in reality with far-fetched remoteness and incorporates a melange of folk art motifs, sylvan visuals of Odisha villages, scroll-painters of Bengal, temples of the Jagannath Dham (Puri), Sanchi stupas, et al in his collection. But what made this son of the soil set his foot in Paris and stay back there forever? “It so happened that when I was studying in the art college, I would leaf through the eminent Dutch post-impressionist painter Vincent Willem Van Gogh’s books, ace English writer Somerset Maugham’s short stories, Moulin Rouge — the world-renowned cabaret music hall of entertainment in Paris (France), its way of life, the rigmarole of dance, songs, its theatricality, the extravagant costumes and the musical shows — all this and much more had just fired up my imagination about Europe or say, the western cultural sky. You know how young minds are, full of dreams and starry fancies, absorbing everything and anything like a sponge,” he ratifies with a reason. “More specifically, I was completely besotted with the Parisisan world, simply because the French capital sounded so romantic and adventurous to my ears then. I was fascinated with the idea of studying and finding immense possibilities on this Mecca of artscape, even if it came at the cost of suffering and struggling to make my both ends meet,” he further establishes his choice of place.
When probed whether his journey was sponsored by a government scholarship, pat comes his candid confession: “Nope. Look, very frankly, I didn’t have much patience to wait and win a scholarship, and then set sail to the foreign shores. Thankfully on the homefront, I could convince my father after a little persuasion since in those days, shaping up a professional career out of art and crafts was an unwise option for those material-minded. And concerned parents would definitely worry about their offsprings, had they chosen a different path, which was less travelled by the majority.
But luckily, for me, what was intended at heart, had occurred before my eyes and the next thing I knew, was to head for the dream-destination Paris.” Acknowledging the sudden meteoric rise of the Indian masters on the auction tables in recent years, where their invaluable pieces claim a staggering price before going under the hammer, Burman endorses: “Yeah, it’s true that the Indian art is selling like never before. And the market value has literally hit through the roof, say for instance, a Tyeb Mehta work or a signature M.F. Husain specimen or a Tagroean painting, all have been lapped up across the global plane. Apart from the front-runners like a Christie’s or a Sotheby’s, there are other distinguished labels which also cater to the buyers’ demands with deep, heavy pockets, craving to own a painting by a deft Indian artist or an adroit craftsman.”

A string of such bidding houses from New York, London, Paris and here in India as well, have always lured in some staunch connoisseurs with both means and willingness to purchase artworks as a prized possession. Even to the European clouts, curated works by Indian creators have been sold fetching a high price. Well, such a fertile scenario could not be envisaged even 20 years ago.” Rationalising the cause behind this booming upsurge of the Indian art mart, Burman holds the economic side responsible for this springboarding effect. “Art doesn’t go alone, you see. There has to be a consistent partnership with its commercial aspects as well, because together they make a lucrative business. At the moment, India is fortunately showing a keen interest in her own painters and their works. Hence, this honeymoon phase can be predicted to continue ahead,” forecasts the artist with an analytical mind.
While a clutch of 220-50 paintings from his august stock has been mounted up on board at the illustrious Lalit Kala Akademi in Delhi, Kolkata’s showcase at the massive Victoria Memorial mansion has unfurled a slew of 50-60 frames. This apart, a few good smaller editions of Burman’s drawings called the Linear Extensions, have also been put up at yet another happening art hub of Kolkata, named Akar Prakar.