Thursday, April 25, 2013

Mapping the art journey of artist Sakti Burman

During his college days, a restless albeit highly talented young artist would travel around the city, sketching the people and life around, during his graduation at the Government Art College in Kolkata.

It was only after visiting Paris on a scholarship from the French Government that Sakti Burman found a real direction and vision to his artistic agenda. He honed his artistic skills at L'Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Art. During this period, he frequently visited Italy, and was inspired by the frescoes and paintings of the Renaissance period.

Apart from a series of solos, his works have been included in several group participations, such as the Paris Biennales (1963, 65, 67); the Salon d’Automne, Grand Palais, Paris (1975, 1994); 'Peintres Visionnaires', Belford Museum; Contemporary Indian Art, Yokohoma (1993); 'Contemporary French Painters', Iran (1975); 5th International Triennale, Delhi, (1982); 'Sigmund Freud's Interpretation of Dreams', Historische Museum der Stadt Wien, Vienna (2000); 'Art of Bengal, Past and Present', National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai and CIMA, Kolkata, (2001).

His characteristic imagery inadvertently resembled the weathered frescos. He returned to India as if to soak in the glory of Ajanta, Ellora and Konark for a fresh perspective of ancient Indian art traditions. It is understandable why his pictorial sensibility is immersed in the finesse of Italian frescoes and serenity of bewildering Buddhist cave murals, coupled with European influences, often reminding one of fabulous French tapestry.

Summing up his philosophy, Sakti Burman had stated: “We are always looking for something which we don’t know. We are always running after that unknown thing. It’s a perpetual search. I’m not someone who is jumping from one thing to another. I am trying to follow a line and trying to go deep within myself because an artist must remain true to his or her instincts and do things he (or she) thinks are the absolute truth.”

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