Sakti Burman: A Dreamer Between Cultures

A Life Bridging Two Worlds

Born in 1935 in Calcutta and raised in the idyllic village of Bidyakut in present-day Bangladesh, Sakti Burman is one of the most distinctive voices in Indian modern art. A graduate of the Government College of Art and Crafts, Kolkata (1956), and later the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Burman’s life and work seamlessly interweave the mythic imagination of the East with the classical traditions of Europe. Over the decades, his art has emerged as a poetic confluence of fantasy and memory, dream and devotion.

Artistic Language and Technique

Burman is best known for his iconic marbling technique, discovered serendipitously when oil and turpentine accidentally spilled on one of his works. This method, which mimics the aged texture of ancient frescoes, gives his canvases a timeless, dreamlike quality. His visual language, populated by ethereal figures, musicians, deities, and animals, evokes both the Italian Renaissance and Indian folklore. At the same time, it is deeply personal—a reflection of inner landscapes and remembered mythologies.

Exhibitions and Recognition

Burman has exhibited widely across India and Europe. His major retrospectives have included venues like the Lalit Kala Akademi (New Delhi), Jehangir Art Gallery (Mumbai), Victoria Memorial (Kolkata), and DakshinaChitra (Chennai). Recent shows such as Sculpted Sagas and A Private Universe have continued to explore his mythopoeic world.

He has been honored with several awards, including:

• Knight of the Legion of Honour, France’s highest civilian distinction (2016)

• Silver Medal, Salon de Montmorency, France

• Town Award, L’Isle-Adam, France

Aakriti Art Gallery and the 60s–80s Exhibition

Aakriti Art Gallery has been one of the significant platforms in India to present and contextualize Sakti Burman’s practice. In a landmark exhibition titled “Sakti Burman: 60s to 80s”, the gallery brought together a curated body of early to mid-career works that showcased the artist’s transition—from the formative Paris years to his emergence as a distinctive Indian modernist with a universal idiom.

This exhibition, held at Aakriti Art Gallery, Kolkata, offered viewers an intimate look at the painter’s evolving style—where narrative, memory, and technique began to crystallize into his mature language. It featured rare paintings, watercolors, and drawings from the decades that laid the foundation for his later iconic oeuvre.

Legacy

Now living between Paris and New Delhi, Sakti Burman is part of a vibrant artistic family that includes his wife Maite Delteil, daughter Maya Burman, and niece Jayasri Burman. His work continues to inspire younger generations of artists and collectors, not just for its aesthetic elegance, but for its profound ability to transcend boundaries—between countries, between the sacred and the secular, and between the real and the imagined.

Through exhibitions like those at Aakriti Art Gallery, his early contributions and artistic journey are being continually rediscovered and celebrated in both scholarly and curatorial contexts. Sakti Burman remains a singular figure who has given form to dreams, and offered Indian modernism a language both intimate and eternal.