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Exhibition at Gallery Sanskriti 6th March - 15th April, 2013.
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maya burman
maya burman6th March - 15th April, 2013 12 noon - 8 pm
Gallery Sanskriti5C Alipore Park Road, Kolkata - 700 027, IndiaP +91 33 2448 4925/2449 7931 www.gallerysanskriti.com
LILA AND THE BIRDS | 2012Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper20” x 20”
Maya Burman’s Art : Facts of Fantasy
Art is not a ‘reality show’, nor is it a transcript of reality. But art can evoke a life-scape drawing on events of life or create an alternative version of life lived in a cherished world of imagination. The images of alternative life-scape make visible either a pleasurable fantasy or a life we aspire for, which may be unreal but not impossible. In her current works Maya Burman has, however, created a pictorial life-space where this fantasy interfaces with the facts of life lived in perceived reality. Her watercolours in vivid washes of varied tonal effects with fi gures and other details meticulously evoked in fi ne neat tidy pen-and-ink lines are undoubtedly enlivened with a blithe spirit of fantasy. Each frame sports a life-scape in a plush setting of colourful décor, brimming over with the joyous youthful spirit of spring and beauty.
Titled variously as Let’s Play, Afternoon Game, Happy Bathing, On a Sunny Day etc., the pictures depict a dream world peopled by an intimate group of carefree young men and women and lovely little boys and girls, their chubby innocent faces and plump limbs in pliant wavy contours swaying with the gentle rhythm of life’s most sought-after aspirations—joy, love and peace. They move about in a playful mood, lie down leisurely, paint portraits, bathe in a shower of water tumbling out of a beautiful pitcher, play cards, play with masks or with red fi shes in a giant aquarium or with paper boats or hold a bird in hand or a balloon on a string or hug a striped cat. The Matissesque fi gures and the free unbounded yet framed spaces they crowd are bathed in a fl at lucid light, accentuated by no sharp shades. They seem to inhabit no known reality and in many frames the settings have no indoor or outdoor specifi cities. More unspecifi ed are the settings in the vertical compositions in which spaces seem to fl ow from top downward even across the details of interior ambience and fi gures sometimes appear to fl oat like the angels in the void of the church ceilings painted by Baroque artists.
What is most remarkable about these pictures is their fabulous wealth of ornate details. If there are such spaces as fl oors and walls, besides those neutral areas of uncertain interior or what looks like indoor or outdoor plants, they are all defi ned with lush and lavish decorative motifs. Intricate fl oral patterns adorn the dresses the characters wear, and richly delineate what looks like textiles and tapestries. A rich matching palette in each image adds to the setting’s fecund ornamental detail, which is devoid, however, of any cloying visual excess. In fact the details do not merely suggest sumptuous visuals or depict a lifestyle of luxurious opulence that enables these boys and girls and the young men and women to relish in every limb a happy-go-lucky life of leisure. They provide a sort of pictorial infrastructure of tangible reality to this extravagant fantasy.
There is however a subtle hint of a subtext of something contrary to what the pictures primarily convey. The organisation of the fi gures and the scheme of colours have embedded in them eloquent details of this subtext. Maya Burman’s palette displays a wide vibrant range that ensures in each frame a gorgeous visual. Dominated by warm shades, the colours interface not only in tonal harmony but also in tonal tension that saves the frames from being each an eye-candy. The lines are fi ligree fi ne and extremely delicate both in delineation of fi gures as well as in other formal details and are marked by an incredible precision. Figures and forms are organised with little spatial logic. What holds them together unrelated to the spaces is their bond of love and affection. However, the viewer looks at them to fi nd that their faces rarely gleam with joy and their eyes do not glint with excited enjoyment of their afternoon games. As if they are not sure of the reality that has all the contours of a happy dream. They don’t seem to have in their grasp this dream reality which consists of only those things that we miss in real life and ever aspire for.
- Manasij Majumder
ON A SUNNY DAY | 2012Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper31.5” x 31.5”
LILA AND HER CATS | 2012Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper31.5” x 31.5”
UNTITLED | 2011Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper10” x 10”
rightLET’S PLAY | 2012Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper32” x 48”
leftLET’S PLAY CARDS | 2012Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper19.75” x 25.75”
AFTERNOON GAME | 2012Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper20” x 6”
HAPPY BATHING | 2012Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper20” x 6”
PLAY AS YOU LIKE | 2012Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper48” x 14.5”
AFTERNOON GAME | 2012Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper6” x 20”
AFTERNOON GAME | 2012Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper6” x 20”
UNTITLED | 2011Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper9.75” x 10”
UNTITLED | 2011Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper9.75” x 9.75”
LET’S PLAY FISHING | 2012Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper26” x 19.5”
rightPUT THEM ON A BOAT | 2012Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper19.75” x 25.75”
RELAXED EVENING | 2012Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper31.5” x 31.5”
rightPLAYING CARDS | 2012Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper31.5” x 48”
overleaf leftLET’S PLAY WITH MASK | 2012Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper20” x 26”
overleaf rightLET’S PLAY DIVING | 2012Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper19.75” x 25.75”
leftPLAY AS YOU LIKE | 2012Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper20” x 26”
UNTITLED | 2012Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper48” x 16”
UNTITLED | 2011Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper48” x 16”
HAPPY BATHING | 2012Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper20” x 6”
LET’S PLAY | 2012Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper16” x 48”
AFTERNOON GAME | 2012Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper6” x 20”
UNTITLED | 2011Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper10” x 10”
UNTITLED | 2011Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper10” x 9.75”
AFTERNOON GAME | 2012Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper31.5” x 31.5”
ON A SUNNY DAY | 2012Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper31.5” x 31.5”
LILA CATCHING RED FISHES | 2011Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper20” x 6”
LILA WITH FISHING NET | 2011Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper20” x 6”
rightPLAY WITH RED FISHES | 2012Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper20” x 26”
LILA PLAYS WITH RED FISHES | 2012Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper6” x 20”
LET’S PLAY TOGETHER | 2012Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper6” x 20”
UNTITLED | 2011Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper10” x 10”
UNTITLED | 2011Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper10” x 10”
ACE OF HEARTS | 2012Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper20” x 6”
UNTITLED | 2008Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper48” x 16”
HAPPY BATHING | 2012Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper20” x 6”
rightLILA PLAYING CARDS | 2012Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper20” x 26”
UNTITLED | 2011Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper48” x 16”
LILA WITH BALOON | 2012Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper20” x 6”
UNTITLED | 2012Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper16” x 16”
ENJOYING THE EVENING | 2011Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper6” x 20”
PLAYING WITH CARDS | 2012Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper16” x 48”
Born: July 11, 1971Studies: 3 years of architecture in Paris.1993 – Travelled for one year in India. Worked with “Center for Built Environment, Kolkata” for the survey of North Kolkata.
NATIONAL SHOWSSalon d’ Automne, Paris (France) 1998-2004 Salon de Colombes (France) 1997 1998-2004Salon du XVème, Paris (France) 1998Salon de Sannois (France) 1998 1999-2002Salon du petit format du XVème, Paris (France) 1998-1999Salon de Beauvais (France) 1999Salon du Xème, Paris (France) 2000-2001-2003Salon d’ Art Contemporain, St Rémy les Chevreuses (France) 2000
SOLO SHOWSThéatre de Chaoué, Allonnes (France) 1998Art Today Gallery, New Delhi (India) 2000Festival du Cinema Asiatique, Vesoul (France) 2000Apparao Gallery, Chennai (India) 2000-2001Médiathèque du Lamentin (Martinique) 2001Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata (India) 2002Art Musings, Mumbai (India) 2002Gallery Ganesha, New Delhi (India) 2002Intex, Colours on Canvas, (Dubai ) 2005Apparao Gallery, Chennai, (India ) 2005Gallery Ganesha, New Delhi (India) 2007Art Musings, Mumbai (India) 2007Gallery Sanskriti, Kolkata (India) 2008Gallery Nvyà, New Delhi (India) 2010Art Musings, Mumbai (India) 2011Gallery Sanskriti, Kolkata (India) 2013
GROUP SHOWSGalerie 51, Villeneuve sur Lot (France)Galerie Sauret, Fumel (France) 1995Apparao Gallery, Chennai (India) 1997Center of International Modern Art, Kolkata (India) 1998Gallery Ganesha, New Delhi (India) 1998Galerie Boyrié, Strasbourg (France) 1999Indian Embassy, Paris (France) 1999Musée de la Tour Carrée, Ste Maxime (France) 2000Musée de la Poste, Paris (France) 2001Center of International Modern Art, Kolkata (India) 2003Visual Art, London 2004Art in Step, Gallerie Ganesh, New Delhi (India) 2007Dastak, Visual Art, London(UK) 2007Reading Paint » Gallery Soulfl ower , Bangkok (Thailand) 2007Harvest, Arushi Art, New Delhi (India) 2009Beyond the form, Bajaj Capital Art House,New Delhi, Mumbai (India) 2009Fables and History, Nvyà gallerie, New Delhi(India) 2010Spring 2010, Fiidaa art, Singapore 2010Besides Paris, Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata (India) 2010Indian Art Fair, New Delhi (India) 2012, 2013
AWARDSAward for young painters section, Salon de Colombes (France) 1997Award of the Fine Art association of Sannois (France) 1998Selected for the Award of the Salon d’ Automne, Paris (France) 2000Award for the watercolor section, Salon de Colombes (France) 2000Prix Lucie Rivel, Taylor Fundation (France) 2002
ILLUSTRATIONSIllustrations for “Nouvelles de l’ Inde” The newspaper of the Indian Embassy in Paris, 2000-2004Cover for the book of Satyajit Ray “Fatik et le jongleur de Calcutta” Pocket jeunesse editor, 1999Poster for the play of Girish Karnad “Hayavadana” (France) 1999.
Design : Vedika JhunjhunwalaPhotograph : Goutam MukherjeePrint : Pixcel India, Kolkata
maya burman
