Shiwani Bhardwaj: You were born in 1935 in the small village, Bidyakut, an area now in Bangladesh . Tell us about your early years of creative urge and what fascinated you to paint and draw?
Sakti Burman : I was a small boy then, and I remember very few fragmentary events, but the impressions of the images encountered then are vividly present in my consciousness. Village is a small place but then for me it was large, even a pond seems to me endless. I remember my first contact with pictures was when I was three or four, I watched my brother draw over an emptied egg. The festivals like durga puja, purnima puja, local theatre with ‘jatra' screens having popular paintings, alpana decoration and so on are integral part of our culture and everyday visual encounter. Since I'm a painter, I recall my childhood with the images, if I was to do something else; I would have seen the world differently.
During your elementary training at the Government College of Arts and Crafts of then called Calcutta, Indian Art was strongly influenced by Nationalist feeling and also struggling to define Indian art addressing both Indian consciousness and international expectations. In 1956 you decided to go to Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris . How do you think have these occurrences affected the course of your artistic style?
When as a student one joins the academy, one is enthusiastic to learn everything. Even simple things like drawing from reality appear difficult and achieving realistic rendering is also a source of great pleasure. I always wanted to be a painter first before adopting to other identities. So I took the opportunity to acquaint myself with the European culture and artistic tradition as well. Indian culture has always been part of me but I cannot ignore that France is my adopted culture. Everything about Paris fascinated me, the environment, the architecture, and the art movements and so on. The way of education was freer there. I came across artists movements like Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism and so on. I began to enjoy works by Matisse, Picasso, Bruno, Chagall, Dali, Magritte and so on.
Again when I came back with my wife to India and visited ancient and medieval historical sites like Ajanta , Ellora, Kanheri caves, temple and so on, the impact of my own culture was very different on me. In my works, consciously or unconsciously, imagery from Indian context and the western context merge into each other. When I'm working I go through several emotions, in that sense I travel with my work or my work is representative of my travel. In the same way, my paintings have become narrative, story of my travel.
Your painting technique is quite unusual. How central and significant do you believe, the speckled technique of paint application has been to your growth of subject and visual effect in your work?
My technique is inevitable to my work; it is the vehicle to my ideas. I learnt abstraction from Italy but my idea is not completely realized without referring to imagery from reality. In Pizza, I saw frescoes, some of which were damaged. The effect of chipped off pieces were so interesting, it reminds of fragility of thoughts and adds nostalgic sensation to old memories. I wanted to have the same feeling in my work, where no particular character is expressed but several feelings are evoked. I tried blotting with Chinese ink, watercolours but finally came out with my own technique of using oil colours with acrylic medium that produced an interesting effect on canvas. The procedure is long and labourious, but I also wanted my colours to reveal Indian sense of circular perspective, not the linear perspective of the West. So, I often take couple of days only to visualise the basic colour composition.
You are very fond of poetry and you are particularly impressed by versatile poets like Honore Balzac, Charles Baudelaire and Rabindranath Tagore. Have these poets or poetry influenced you to bring vibrancy and flexibility, which is seen in your paintings?
I feel contradictions are important to feel the essence of life. When I was growing up in Jatya, my father used to be interested in theatre and music, and we used to often accompany him. I have been completely surrendered to music and poetry since then. But with growing up and experiencing world poetry and theatre, I came across several poets and varied way of expression. Exposures also make one critical about things and understand the beauty of various forms of poetry and theatre. I like Baudelaire for his poetry, which is violent and critical about humanity and myths. He valorizes Omen, and emphasises the truth of their presence. Balzac brings out the humour of life and being. Rabindranath, with his optimist attitude towards his own culture and the west, has produced writing with inspiration and imagination. They are all different from each other. I appreciate the nuances of the opposites and that is what I show in my artwork as well.
You draw the imagery from notably three distinct sources: the world mythology, urban spaces and practices, and east and west traditions of art. You render the masters, mundane, myths and imagination in one uniform rendering style onto one plane. Could you please elaborate on this?
For me myth and reality are not so different from each other, as once you start believing in something, it becomes true for the same. Mythology, politics, society and culture are all aspects of humanity and are human constructs. In recent times, even Mahatma Gandhi is world over a mythic symbol of non violence. In my works I relook at symbolization and meaning it evokes. I render different existences in one uniform pattern to arouse an analytical sense of the world. For me for instance, Ganesha would also have an existence beyond his spiritual powers. He could also be a man with a mask, a juvial man who is playfull yet full of knowledge. And besides his image will be my grandson Ganapati's image to highlight the connection of man being part cosmic world and not distinct from it. My paintings help me actualise things beyond their grounded significance, so I bring together oppositions in multiple ways.
In your imagery, we find, metamorphosed imagery from mythology, and we also get a glimpse of your self-portrait mused with other beings and objects. The idea of metamorphosis is loaded with meanings. It stands for intertwining of ideas, it means to possess best of abilities of two entities, it also stands for the living tradition of imagination, and many more. How does this appear in our works?
Sometimes things happen automatically, without conscious thinking. It also arouses an analytical interest and sometimes create interesting humour in the work. When I sit to work on my canvas, one image spontaneously opens into another. However, it so happens that, while working, I am conscious of the act, I enjoy the chance of rendering images with utmost sincerity to its character; but as soon I finish, I forget the cause behind morphosing two images. It is just like our dreams, where images in the subconscious appear with displaced and joint identities but are soon forgotten in consciousness. Also, I believe, the real speculations in art begin after the work is completed, the meaning doesn't end with finishing of the work.
Interestingly, we notice satyr, a man or a woman with a violin, a man painting, and many more imagery that repeats itself in the same posture as if the same character is participating in a new dream sequence. Could you elaborate on reappearance of these imagery?
The reappearance of imagery in my works happens in different ways. Sometimes, I use the same posture in varied context, while sometimes the posture is changed to hint at new correlations between the objects used. Titian, a well known Renaissance painter, painted the Olympia in so many different postures and set up. Our paintings are like a journey. When I begin with an image, I want to explore it to the maximum, imagine it in many compositions and correlations, till I get exhausted. And I feel my images still have a lot of possibility for exploration. Humanity has a long existence, and images are representative of human journey that keeps traveling, encountering newer events and refreshing older contacts.
Female nudity is an integral part of both east and the west artistic tradition, but both the traditions have its peculiar means of portraying the nude with different ideas of human form and eroticism. Where does your nudes come from? How do you place them in your compositions and how do you want them to be viewed?
I don't paint only nude figure, but my nudes are part of larger compositions. The nudes that I paint are taken from my sketchbook, western masters, contemporary photographs and also Indian miniatures. But once they are rendered on canvas they become part of a new act. They don't portray fixed notions of nudity but at different occasions mean different things. An onlooker might praise it for its anatomical grace, or someone might question its presence and relevance.
Your works are referred as ‘dreams of wish fulfillment' or ‘a long festive season without a break'. But there are a lot many dichotomies in your work, as the good vs. the evil, mundane vs. myth, reality vs. imagination, self vs. the other. How does that function in your work?
I have always doubted extremism. I feel no truth can reveal the absolute truth of the world. Each system tries to prove that it's the best way to define the world, but extremism is only partial truth. In my works I always work with several emotions, for me evil and good are not antagonist to each other but they keep shifting position, my truth may not be your truth. Imagination, myth, reality, self and others; all contribute to the joy called life.
You are one of the senior most artists of India ; you have witnessed growth of Indian art market from a vantage point. How do you look at the contemporary young artists in India ? How do you think the younger generation should value the contribution of the senior artists?
Things develop differently at different points of time. Newer waves tend to condemn the older ones, which is unjust. There cannot be any linear development in art. Each art is expression of its time. There cannot be any comparison between the senior and young artists, as many senior artists have continued to work taking up newer challenges. So I don't feel old at all, but I have great admiration for many of the young artists who are doing fabulously well. Today with globalisation, newer mediums are producing different kinds of work throughout the world; there is acceptance for variety of things as people with varied taste show admiration for art.
What are your future projects?
Work, work and work. I hope, I will be able explore more in the future.
(Shiwani has recently completed her BVA in Art History from Faculty of Fine Arts, MSU, Baroda . She is presently working with Art Alive Gallery) |
