KOLKATA: Sakti Burman is a master storyteller and, true to form, weaves many stories about the origins of the unique pendant that is his signature neckpiece. And when he’s not spinning tales about this globular adornment, he does so with his brush on canvas. Fantastical tales that are a blend of Indian and European, Christianity and Hinduism, modern and traditional, and sensuous as well as pious.
Burman, who has just turned 80, is strikingly distinctive not only in his works, but also in his persona. He’s always nattily dressed (he was dressed in a light beige suit, bright red shirt, a striking maroon scarf with Indian motifs under the lapels and completed with a pair of brown shoes with yellow socks for this interview last week) and says he likes to “present” himself “differently”. But he doesn’t put in any effort in dressing up; it comes naturally to him. The same manner in which his unique style of painting comes naturally to him, say art critics. Style, for Burman, was never consciously cultivated. Not in attire, not in his works. His earliest works bear close resemblance to his latest ones. “When I see my earliest paintings now, I like them. Many of them are auctioned through Christie’s and Sotheby’s even now,” he says. Ask him about his sartorial style, and he points to his self-portrait when he was still a student at Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts in Paris in the mid-1950s: a white shirt under a trendy green pullover and the stylish facial expression are a testament to his elegance even then. The only thing that has changed since then, he says, is that he no longer wears a necktie. “When I first went to Paris, I used to wear a tie. But I soon realized that no one else was wearing one, so I gave that up,” he recounts. And since when has he been wearing that spherical pendant? Burman starts his narration, and admits with a chuckle that his narratives vary depending on the listeners, place and situation. The pendant is hollow, and asked what he’s kept inside, he starts telling yet another story that promises to be just as fascinating as the ones he paints on canvas. But he doesn’t quite completely the story, adding to the mystery. Once again, like some of his works which have an aura of mystique around them. Sprightly even at this age, Burman packs a powerful personality in his 5’7” frame. And he’s a charmer too, never at a loss with words to compliment the women admirers of his artworks. And that’s not only because his works evoke universal admiration. Burman, despite all the acclaim he has earned, is a down-to-earth person who is always full of life. He’s happy, he says, because he’s still painting and is looking forward to many more years of painting, sculpting and doing things that he loves to do. “The life of a painter can be difficult at times and I also passed through some difficult phases. But those were fleeting phases,” he says. Burman says he has no regrets in life. “Whatever happened to me was good and that was because I wanted that. I used to wish earlier for my finances to improve, but no longer do so now. I am satisfied with whatever life has given me,” he says. The master painter says he never harboured any dream of becoming famous. “I only wanted to paint and my ambition was modest — that of working as a teacher in an art college,” he says. But then, his painting started selling, and selling well, even as he was a student in Paris. And that was when he realized that painting could earn him a livelihood. “So I became a painter,” he says very simply, with a broad smile followed by an infectious chuckle. What also sets Burman apart from many of his contemporaries is his large-heartedness. His apartment in Paris, where he stays with his wife Maite Delteil, also an accomplished painter in her own right, is an open house for struggling artists. Many from India have gone and enjoyed his unbounded hospitality. Burman is a quintessential family man. His daughter Maya, another painter, stays close by and visits every day. Maya’s son Ganapati is going to art school and Burman takes immense pride in this grandson of his, never tiring to tell everyone that Ganapati will one day become famous. The octogenarian visits his son Nabindranath (Matieu), who is a scientist and lives a little away from Paris, every week and is also close to Matieu’s children — son Everest Kuntal and daughter Estelle Dipali. And every once in a while, Burman and his wife, with the families of their children, spend quality time at a cottage he purchased many decades ago in the village in southwest France Maite hails from. He says he’s happiest when he’s there, surrounded by his wife, children and grandchildren. Painting is what Burman does, even when he’s not putting brush to canvas. “When I’m not painting physically, I paint in my mind. And that’s how many of my paintings are born,” he says. He also sketches a lot and his sketchbook is his constant companion throughout his journeys around the world. “These sketches also form the basis of many of my paintings.” Ask him what his next painting will be, and he replies that he doesn’t have a clue. “Because even when I start on a fresh painting, I never know where and when it’ll end.” Every painting, he explains, is a journey for him. A journey that, like his life, is an eventful one that has always provided illustrious outcomes.
