Highest French Distinction “Knight of the Legion of Honour” conferred on Sakti Burman [fr]
Ambassador of France François Richier conferred highest French distinction "Knight of the Legion of Honour" on eminent artist Sakti Burman.
New Delhi, 10 March 2016
On behalf of the President of the French Republic, H.E. Mr François Richier, Ambassador of France to India, conferred the highest French civilian distinction, Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour), on eminent artist Sakti Burman on Thursday, 10th March 2016 at the Residence of France.
This honour comes in recognition of his extraordinary work, located at the confluence of French, European and Indian cultures, and the enduring relations he has established between France and India.
A short film on the artist was screened and four of his paintings were on display on this occasion.
Sakti Burman was born in 1935 in Kolkata, where he studied at the Government College of Arts and Crafts. In the late 1950s, he went to Paris to study at the prestigious Ecole des Beaux-Arts on a French government scholarship. His connection to this Fine Arts college has remained very strong at both the professional and personal levels: he received the prestigious Foreign Artist Prize (Prix des Etrangers) from the Beaux-Arts, and married one of his peers from the college, the French painter Maïté Delteil.
His art developed in France, where he has now been living for over five decades. His work has been greatly imbued with the country’s culture and the colourful portraits of French interiors, of furniture and chimneys as painted by Pierre Bonnard, as well as the figures, fruits and landscapes painted by Matisse. His enchantment with Renaissance frescos during his travels in Italy also coloured his paintings. However, Sakti Burman’s work also reflects his fresh look at the Ajanta murals, the sculptures and paintings by India’s classical masters illustrating legends, lores, myths, and the life of the Buddha. A fine lithographer and master of the French pointillism technique and the marbling effect, Burman can achieve a wide range of astonishing textural variations, which make his paintings reminiscent of ageing frescoes as well as fabulous French tapestries.
Sakti Burman has also illustrated several books, including a collection of poems by French poet Stéphane Mallarmé. His works have been widely exhibited in prestigious venues, such as the Galerie des Beaux-Arts and Galerie Doucet et Coutureau, Paris; Piccadilly Gallery, London; Galleria Nuovo Sagittario, Milan; and Galerie Sagar, Zurich.
A philanthropist, he has donated his paintings for raising funds for various causes, including the Alliance française building in New Delhi; the victims of the 2014 floods in Jammu and Kashmir; and for Plan India, an NGO for child development.