Home is Where the Art Is

As Sakti Burman and Paresh Maity exhibit their art in Mumbai and Kolkata this month, we find that the Europe-loving relatives both remain staunchly Bengali at heart

- Shaikh Ayaz

I don’t think Matisse has done this kind of work,” says Sakti Burman, when we meet him at the opening of his solo show Of Gods and Men (on until November 30) at Mumbai’s Art Musings gallery. “But Picasso has.” The artist, now 88, is referring to one of his striking paintings—a harlequin captured in a checked costume and pensive mood. ‘Evariste as Harlequin’ is painted in typical Burman style, a blend of European sensibility and Indian roots. Furthermore, what makes this particular artwork close to his heart is that the sitter happens to be his grandson, Evariste. “I have always drawn inspiration from the circus. The circus performers bring you joy, but hidden inside them is a sense of melancholia. There’s a huge element of make-believe in the whole thing—and there’s a lot of drama,” says Burman.

Burman spent the lockdown in New Delhi. Though he has been extraordinarily productive—these new works demonstrate that—he has been secretly pining for the familiar comforts of Paris. He is an ‘artist’ in the old-fashioned sense. He peppers his conversation with loving references to Vincent van Gogh and Pablo Picasso on the one hand and to the Ajanta-Ellora murals and Indian mythology on the other.