Sakti Burman - A Private Universe

Through my work I return to my native roots, my youth, and the transitory world of innocence…The role of memory in art is a recognised fact, but in my case, as a painter living in a foreign city for so many years, my memories are doubly potent in sustaining my creative life.” - Sakti Burman Legends, family, and Indian gods meet and mingle in Sakti Burman’s private, kaleidoscopic universe. Sakti Burman is one of India’s pioneering painters, who was born in 1935 in Kolkata and grew up in what is now Bangladesh. This monograph is the definitive publication illustrating the evolution of Sakti Burman’s prolific paintings, drawings, and watercolors, contextualizing his lifelong exploration into alternative ways of seeing. Burman’s colorful figures hark back to a kind of ancient “lost paradise,” but also sustain a fresh and irrepressible faith in the beauty and sensibilities of Mother Nature alongside a hopeful human spirit.