Colours of Celebration by Sakti Burman

(By Nalini S Malaviya)

Sakti Burman is celebrating his 75th birthday in style. An exhibition of limited edition prints titled The Complete Collection of select paintings produced by the eminent artist in the last two decades is being showcased. The serigraphs have been produced in collaboration with Lavesh Jagasia from The Serigraph Studio.

The veteran artist born in Bidyakut, which is now a part of Bangladesh has been living in France since the mid 1950s, but now spends a few months every year in New Delhi. He recalls that the life of an artist was not so easy in those days and when he went to Paris in 1956 to study at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts, he did not know anyone and his paintings helped him to build bridges with others in a foreign land. He says, “I too veered towards the great masters in the early years and fell under the influence of Bonnard, Matisse, Chagall and of course Picasso. Just to stand before their canvas was to experience the unreal. It was so far removed from my life in Bidyakut.”

Looking at his paintings his Indian roots are easily visible – the rich earthy palette, a profusion of mythological figures and an air of romanticism that define his canvas. However, when one looks closely one finds figures from Greek mythology and other western influences. His paintings are a pictorial narrative, a joyous celebration and a confluence of iconic characters from across the world that form the tableaux as they narrate the tale. He explains, “All my excited enjoyment of art in India and in the West that lay stored in my memory and in my unconscious, all the myths and fairy tales, legends and lore I had heard or read, my love for music and the songs of Tagore or the poetry of Baudelaire – all went into the making of my paintings to evoke a world of unreality, but one very much real in my imaginative life and enlivened in every part with hope, joy dream and fantasy.”

Why serigraphs? As Lavesh, an avid art collector turned publisher explains, the primary reason for bringing out a series of limited edition prints was to make art accessible to a larger number of connoisseurs. With prices of paintings becoming so high, the only way to reach out to people is by offering them multiples that have been created with an emphasis on quality. He adds, “the ambitious project has taken almost 5 to 6 years to complete and in a sense it is a virtual retrospective with seminal works from the artist’s body of work coming together in a single portfolio.” The exhibition is being held in several cities such as Mumbai, Chennai, New Delhi and Kolkata, as well.

(The exhibition continues till March 10 at Gallery Sumukha, Bengaluru)

(Published in Bangalore Mirror)

Review - Ravikumar Kashi

Bangalore based artist Ravikumar Kashi's recent set of paintings previews in Bangalore on Dec 20, 2006. The exhibition will then travel to Chennai, Palo Alto - California (USA) and London, UK.

Since, I had to do a write-up for the Sunday Times of India, on a bright Sunday morning I braved the by-now ill-famous Bangalore traffic and met him at his studio. Over a cup of coffee, we discussed his art, the process by which he arrives at his compositions, his poetry and writings, Bangalore's promising art scene, contemporary Indian art in general and a lot more. The works were refreshing (and, so was the coffee) and I came away impressed with his interpretations of 'urban experiences'.

The following article was published today in TOI, Bangalore (Dec 17, 2006)

Paradox of Urbanisation

Bangalore based artist Ravikumar Kashi’s works offer remarkable insights into the paradoxical aspects of modernization and urbanization. The layers on his canvas reveal the intricacies and dynamics related to media excesses and social paradigms. Ravi takes inspiration from current events and his surroundings; he collects images and text that interest him. A look into his scrapbook reveals a fascinating collection of assorted images from advertisements, photographs and text from magazines and even email ids. His notebook is filled with rough sketches and scribbled notes, which then form the basis of his artworks.

Ravi has continuously evolved as an artist; over the years, he has experimented with various mediums - he has worked with paper pulp, found art, printmaking and glass painting in the past. And, now in the current series of paintings there is greater maturity where the visuals are more open-ended and encourage further viewer interaction. Incidentally, he has a Masters degree in printmaking from MS University, Baroda, and in English from Mysore University. A writer and a poet, Ravi has also published interviews with artists for newspapers.

What he is particularly adept at is in presenting the contrast or conflict between accepted norms as he combines unrelated images to magnify the non-apparent similarities and differences. The unraveling of layers and arriving at the inter-relation of separate frames in his paintings forms an exciting process by itself. ‘Happily ever after’ explores the relationship between a couple, where a pile of boxes on the lower side of the canvas hints at revealing new surprises in the relationship when pulling out each box. ‘Say something’ depicts a corpse like figure completely still and static with an overlapping flight map that talks about movement and connectivity. The irrelevance of tickers on the television screen on news channels talks about segmented viewing, and compartmentalization of our lives in general. According to Ravi Kashi, “Often we see an advertisement of a beauty product on one page of a magazine with a model turned out exquisitely, while on the opposite page is an image of a young girl suffering from draught.” The incongruity of events and images in media is what influences Ravi in his art.


On one hand the society abhors violence and killing, and at the same time most videogames (even for children) allow them to score points based on the number of killings made! His large 10 x 5 feet work titled ‘Go Play’ deals with this theme. The painting raises issues of morality and the society’s response in varying scenarios. The other works are also along similar lines; they deal with notions of power, urban stress, expectations, consumerism, materialism and so on. Most of his paintings have textual messages that highlight the absurdity of urban patterns. The text varies from Morse code, Braille, sign language, email ids and even banner ads.

Another set of visuals made in paper pulp forms a separate collection akin to pages from a journal. These combine images and text in random order and are also based on contemporary topics. Occupying an informal space in the exhibition, these are equally thought provoking and raise pertinent questions on urban trends.

The exhibition begins on December 20 at Gallery Sumukha, Bangalore.

Art Buzz

There is a lot more happening in the art world this winter in Bangalore...

Recent paintings by Jyoti & Shantkumar Hattarki
Nov 24 to Dec 9, 2006 at Crimson art gallery at Hatworks Boulevard

Paintings by Reba Hore
Nov 27 to Dec 7, 2006 at Gallery Sumukha



Abstract Notions - photographs by Shibu Arakkal
Nov 25 to Dec 5, 2006 at Galerie Sara Arakkal

Gallery Sumukha opened in Chennai on November 15 with a group show entitled “Take Two”. The gallery was inaugurated by Jogen Chowdhury, with Laxma Goud as Guest of Honour. The exhibition features 78 works combined in unexpected cross-generational groupings and thematic ensembles. The striking variety of works - paintings, sculptures, etchings - together propose a series of conversations among the works and accentuate important innovations in Indian Contemporary Art. The exhibition signifies Sumukha's efforts in removing regional borders in Indian Contemporary Art by showcasing pan-Indian artists.

More events you know of... mail me...

Artist Atul Dodiya narrates Sabari's tale

I met Atul Dodiya when he was in Bangalore for the opening of his exhibition. I wrote the following article for the Sunday Times of India, Bangalore. Since, Dodiya is doing well internationally I thought of sharing the write-up.

Titled ‘The wet sleeves of my paper robe (Sabari in her youth: after Nandalal Bose)’, the mixed media works with paper pulp, and print are the outcome of a workshop held in Singapore recently. Inspired by a series that artist Nandalal Bose did on Sabari in the year 1941, Dodiya re-narrates Sabari’s tale. Guided by American artist and paper-maker Richard Hungerford and Japanese master print-maker Eitaro Ogawa, Dodiya came up with the present series. Drawn from the epic Ramayana, the protagonist is Sabari the tribal woman who offered berries to Lord Rama after tasting them. His Sabari is presented in the contemporary context where scatted bones and red-stained shirts describe the epic war as much as they comment on the violence in recent times.

White cotton shirts, synthetic hair and paper-cast flowers are embedded in pulp while some flowers are also covered by gold leaf. Cultural theorist and curator Ranjit Hoskote writes, “ Sabari is given her freedom in this imaginative re-rendering. The archetype of a life premised on anticipation, a figure lost at the edges of the triumphal march of the Lord, she becomes the epicenter of Dodiya’s seismic recasting of the epic. In Dodiya’s account, she talks to the red birds of the forest that is both in her mind and around her; she grows more heads than the one filled with beatific visions of the Divine. She shakes a rain of fruits from a tree as austere as Mondrian; she dances across a river of bones, visits the battlefields of the future where skeletons have formed into large subterranean assemblies.”

Dodiya began his artistic career painting in a photo-realistic manner, however with time his paintings became more contemporary in nature. He feels an artist’s work should provoke and not aim to please. He enjoys working with different cultural contexts and presenting local subjects in a global style.

He firmly believes that every artist has a social responsibility. One cannot paint in an ivory tower. While twenty years ago there was more freedom and viewers were more positive and acceptance was greater. While now, often political parties and ideology plays a role.

How easy it is for a common man to understand art? “Even artists cannot understand modern art at times, let alone the common man. However, those related to art for instance, regular visitors to art exhibitions will find it easier,” explains Dodiya. “But everyone irrespective of their art initiation will have a response – a strong like or dislike!”