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lot 16

lot 16

Sakti Burman

Untitled (Le Songe)

oil on canvas
15.25 x 18 in. (38.5 x 46 cm.)
painted circa 1990s

Winning Bid: $ 26,000

Estimate: US$ 25,000 - 35,000

Lot Closed

Lot Details

Signed 'Sakti Burman' (lower left)

PROVENANCE
Acquired directly from the artist
Private collection, Dubai

Each of Sakti Burman's canvases looks as finished as a meticulous filigree work; where the east, the west and his colorful life merged into a harmonious tune. He creates a checkered chromatic surface of visual splendor by means of a dense network of varied tones and textures charged in every detail with strong but disciplined aesthetic stimulation.

Aptly titled 'Le Songe' or the dream, the painting depicts innocence and wonder heightened towards the environment of the surreal. Burman's work is mostly figurative; characterized by imageries borne out of various mentions of dreams in legends and literature as well as visual arts of the past in many parts of the world. The pointillist texture is an essential feature of his work, especially his oils. His painted space is composed of fragmented pointillist mist, giving it texture and ethereally mystic tone.

"Sakti fashioned his images out of the resources of myth, legends, art and literature as metaphorical or symbolic correlatives to his experiences, that had seldom anything to do with the world abroad. Figurative visuals fleshing out the artist's subjective experience generally take on the features of dream imagery, by virtue of their being removed from visible reality of daily perception. What lends them a dream aura somewhat is a sense of latent core of the unconscious. This is evident in the very personal and implicit symbolism in his use of mythical or legendary motifs"[...] (Manasij Majumdar, Sakti Burman: Dreamer on the Ark, Pundole Art Gallery, 2001, pg. 14)

Sakti Burman

(b. 1935)
Born in Kolkata, Sakti Burman graduated from the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Kolkata, in 1956 and then went on to study at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts in Paris, where, in 1956, he won the Prix des Etrangers. Some of the most recent solo shows of his work include a retrospective at the Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, Victoria Memorial Hall, Kolkata and Maison de I’Unesco, in 2008. Burman’s works have also been featured at various other international gallery exhibitions; including at the Rand Palais, Paris, in 1975 and 1994; and at the French Biennales in 1963, 1965 and 1967. The artist lives and works in Paris.