Art galore: Best of both worlds

The famous saying by Leonardo da Vinci, “How painting surpasses all human works by reason of the subtle possibilities which it contains”, has been justified at famous artist Sakti Burman’s recent solo art show at Aakriti Art Gallery. Sakti Burman: works from <g data-gr-id="26">60s-80s,</g> is not only an art show but is a delineation of artistic philosophy that is an assemblage that showcases the best of both worlds-east and the west from the foregone era. Although he settled permanently in Paris, he spent most of his time visiting all the art centres of Europe and natural art centres of India like Ajanta, Ellora, Sanchi, Khajuraho, Elephanta etc. 

This in turn inspired him to build up translucent joyous imageries of his paintings from the assimilation of the earthly forms, yet ethereal Italian Frescoes with the jubilant and enlightened classical ethos of Ajanta and the dream world of medieval miniatures. Along with being a painter, he is also a marveled sculptor with his works being mostly figurative  but the association of the figures defies the general norms and logic of reality. They create a world of dream defying the prevalent law of gravity. The reality is heightened towards an environment of surreal. 

He paints mostly in three mediums: oil, water colour and pastel. His technique,   which represents  chromatic orchestration in his oils, is very jubilant and ecstatic even within a structural orientation. In the present show, barring four oils, most of the paintings about twenty in number are in water colour, executed between 1960 and <g data-gr-id="34">1980 .</g> He transforms vacuity of <g data-gr-id="33">the space</g> into a divine light of the sky through treatment of his figurative forms with water colours. The second characteristic of his water colours is the use of texture,  which is also an essential feature of his oils but the transparency and subtlety of application of chromatic points bring out a different character in his water colors. 

The artistic identity that Sakti Burman created in the modernist field of post-1960s art is a kind of spirituality through a sensation of love for life. It not only limits oneself to mere art works but also exposes one to the historical-artistic contributions. This provides us with a deep insight into the cultural history of art forms of both worlds of the west and the east.