maya burman
Gallery Sanskriti 5C Alipore Park Road, Kolkata - 700 027, India P +91 33 2448 4925/2449 7931 www.gallerysanskriti.com
maya burman 6th March - 15th April, 2013 12 noon - 8 pm
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 figures and other details meticulously evoked in fine 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.
LILA AND THE BIRDS | 2012 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 20” x 20”
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 fishes 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 figures and the free unbounded yet framed spaces they crowd are bathed in a flat 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 specificities. More unspecified are the settings in the vertical compositions in which spaces seem to flow from top downward even across the details of interior ambience and figures sometimes appear to float 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 floors and walls, besides those neutral areas of uncertain interior or what looks like indoor or outdoor plants, they are all defined with lush and lavish decorative motifs. Intricate floral 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 figures 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 filigree fine and extremely delicate both in delineation of figures 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 find 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 | 2012 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 31.5” x 31.5”
LILA AND HER CATS | 2012 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 31.5” x 31.5”
UNTITLED | 2011 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 10” x 10” right LET’S PLAY | 2012 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 32” x 48”
left LET’S PLAY CARDS | 2012 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 19.75” x 25.75” AFTERNOON GAME | 2012 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 20” x 6” HAPPY BATHING | 2012 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 20” x 6” PLAY AS YOU LIKE | 2012 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 48” x 14.5”
AFTERNOON GAME | 2012 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 6” x 20”
AFTERNOON GAME | 2012 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 6” x 20”
UNTITLED | 2011 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 9.75” x 10”
UNTITLED | 2011 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 9.75” x 9.75”
LET’S PLAY FISHING | 2012 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 26” x 19.5” right PUT THEM ON A BOAT | 2012 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 19.75” x 25.75”
RELAXED EVENING | 2012 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 31.5” x 31.5” right PLAYING CARDS | 2012 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 31.5” x 48” overleaf left LET’S PLAY WITH MASK | 2012 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 20” x 26” overleaf right LET’S PLAY DIVING | 2012 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 19.75” x 25.75”
left PLAY AS YOU LIKE | 2012 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 20” x 26” UNTITLED | 2012 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 48” x 16” UNTITLED | 2011 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 48” x 16” HAPPY BATHING | 2012 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 20” x 6”
LET’S PLAY | 2012 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 16” x 48”
AFTERNOON GAME | 2012 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 6” x 20”
UNTITLED | 2011 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 10” x 10”
UNTITLED | 2011 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 10” x 9.75”
AFTERNOON GAME | 2012 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 31.5” x 31.5”
ON A SUNNY DAY | 2012 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 31.5” x 31.5”
LILA CATCHING RED FISHES | 2011 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 20” x 6” LILA WITH FISHING NET | 2011 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 20” x 6” right PLAY WITH RED FISHES | 2012 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 20” x 26”
LILA PLAYS WITH RED FISHES | 2012 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 6” x 20”
LET’S PLAY TOGETHER | 2012 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 6” x 20”
UNTITLED | 2011 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 10” x 10”
UNTITLED | 2011 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 10” x 10”
ACE OF HEARTS | 2012 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 20” x 6” UNTITLED | 2008 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 48” x 16” HAPPY BATHING | 2012 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 20” x 6” right LILA PLAYING CARDS | 2012 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 20” x 26”
UNTITLED | 2011 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 48” x 16” LILA WITH BALOON | 2012 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 20” x 6”
UNTITLED | 2012 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 16” x 16”
ENJOYING THE EVENING | 2011 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 6” x 20”
PLAYING WITH CARDS | 2012 Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper 16” x 48”
maya burman Born: July 11, 1971 Studies: 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 SHOWS Salon d’ Automne, Paris (France) 1998-2004 Salon de Colombes (France) 1997 1998-2004 Salon du XVème, Paris (France) 1998 Salon de Sannois (France) 1998 1999-2002 Salon du petit format du XVème, Paris (France) 1998-1999 Salon de Beauvais (France) 1999 Salon du Xème, Paris (France) 2000-2001-2003 Salon d’ Art Contemporain, St Rémy les Chevreuses (France) 2000
SOLO SHOWS Théatre de Chaoué, Allonnes (France) 1998 Art Today Gallery, New Delhi (India) 2000 Festival du Cinema Asiatique, Vesoul (France) 2000 Apparao Gallery, Chennai (India) 2000-2001 Médiathèque du Lamentin (Martinique) 2001 Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata (India) 2002 Art Musings, Mumbai (India) 2002 Gallery Ganesha, New Delhi (India) 2002 Intex, Colours on Canvas, (Dubai ) 2005 Apparao Gallery, Chennai, (India ) 2005 Gallery Ganesha, New Delhi (India) 2007 Art Musings, Mumbai (India) 2007 Gallery Sanskriti, Kolkata (India) 2008 Gallery Nvyà, New Delhi (India) 2010 Art Musings, Mumbai (India) 2011 Gallery Sanskriti, Kolkata (India) 2013
GROUP SHOWS Galerie 51, Villeneuve sur Lot (France) Galerie Sauret, Fumel (France) 1995 Apparao Gallery, Chennai (India) 1997 Center of International Modern Art, Kolkata (India) 1998 Gallery Ganesha, New Delhi (India) 1998 Galerie Boyrié, Strasbourg (France) 1999 Indian Embassy, Paris (France) 1999 Musée de la Tour Carrée, Ste Maxime (France) 2000 Musée de la Poste, Paris (France) 2001 Center of International Modern Art, Kolkata (India) 2003 Visual Art, London 2004 Art in Step, Gallerie Ganesh, New Delhi (India) 2007 Dastak, Visual Art, London(UK) 2007 Reading Paint » Gallery Soulflower , Bangkok (Thailand) 2007 Harvest, Arushi Art, New Delhi (India) 2009 Beyond the form, Bajaj Capital Art House,New Delhi, Mumbai (India) 2009 Fables and History, Nvyà gallerie, New Delhi(India) 2010 Spring 2010, Fiidaa art, Singapore 2010 Besides Paris, Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata (India) 2010 Indian Art Fair, New Delhi (India) 2012, 2013
AWARDS Award for young painters section, Salon de Colombes (France) 1997 Award of the Fine Art association of Sannois (France) 1998 Selected for the Award of the Salon d’ Automne, Paris (France) 2000 Award for the watercolor section, Salon de Colombes (France) 2000 Prix Lucie Rivel, Taylor Fundation (France) 2002
ILLUSTRATIONS Illustrations for “Nouvelles de l’ Inde” The newspaper of the Indian Embassy in Paris, 2000-2004 Cover for the book of Satyajit Ray “Fatik et le jongleur de Calcutta” Pocket jeunesse editor, 1999 Poster for the play of Girish Karnad “Hayavadana” (France) 1999.
Design : Vedika Jhunjhunwala Photograph : Goutam Mukherjee Print : Pixcel India, Kolkata