On her recent visit to a small chapel museum in south of France for a summer holiday contemporary artist Jayasri Burman felt inspired. She marvelled at the objects in the chapel, including the priest’s vestment, that had Henri Matisse’s paintings reprised on them. Little did she know that something similar awaited her back home. Something she “would not have thought of doing”.
Back in India, over a Zoom call, the artist was offered a project, to hand-paint a lehenga for Radhika Merchant for one of her wedding festivities in July. It was stylist Rhea Kapoor who wanted Burman’s painting on Radhika’s lehenga.
With just a month’s time in hand, Burman was unsure how she’d deliver. A request by Radhika personally melted the artist’s heart. Radhika told the artist, “Jayasri auntie, I love your work. In my Jamnagar house, your painting is there. It looks so good.” Burman caved in, albeit on one condition. “I told them that this should be a piece of art. If I do something for Radhika, if she’s going to wear it, it should be a piece of art. It should not be a design on a cloth,” she says.
The bride-to-be added that “Anant doesn’t like green, Nita ji doesn’t like yellow, so please choose a different…a very happy colour.” Burman knew the Ambani family’s affinity for the colour pink. But painting on cloth was out of the question, for the cloth would become hard and brittle “like a papad (poppadom)”. She needed a canvas that would fall like a cloth. Fashion designers Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla, who designed a custom-made wedding ensemble for Radhika, sent Burman good quality Italian canvas and gave her “full liberty”. She got to work in her south Delhi studio, with full meditative rigour of an ascetic, painting for 16 hours daily for an entire month. The result was a stunning pink lehenga that Radhika wore on her Shubh Aashirwad, a day after the wedding.
In this interview, painter and sculptor Burman, 63, who’s married to artist Paresh Maity and is artist Sakti Burman’s niece, talks about the making of the lehenga, on her student days at Santiniketan’s Kala Bhavan which turns 105 years old this year, the feminist iconography in her artwork, and remembering artist FN Souza in his birth centenary year. Excerpts:
You’ve worked like a sadhu for a month on the lehenga. Could you give us a glimpse into that process?
I went to my studio and picked up two boards and started drawing. The cutting of the 12 pieces of the lehenga, etc., were sent to me in the meantime. It’s a huge canvas roll. I had to cut so many pieces. I had to search for good canvas which will give the fall of a cloth. So, I went for Italian canvas and I painted on it with acrylic because it had to dry quickly. The process started immediately because I had to finish soon, since Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla also had to work on it.
I was painting for 16 hours straight every day, day and night, and would only take a break for 10 minutes to eat. From 8.30 am to 11 pm, I would be in the studio. I stopped talking to others. But I enjoyed the process. Generally, when you work with a monochromatic colour, and I do many monochromatics, it’s like a meditation. Any painting you do, it’s a meditation. In this case, to keep the harmony of the colours all over the painting, I needed to give my full concentration.
Did Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla first propose to use silk?
Actually, thick silk is very good because it doesn’t bleed. I would have painted on silk if I had got six-seven months’ time, because it has got a long process. Each colour I use, each time it would need to be steamed, there is a process, and it is very accidental, sometimes, the colour bleeds. Luckily, we got a very good quality Italian canvas, which falls like cloth. I must give a lot of credit to Radhika, she was prepared to wear my canvas, she was actually wearing a painting, like a piece of art.
I must give a lot of credit to Sandeep Khosla because he was so friendly and he gave me full freedom. He said to me, ‘Don’t think anything. You do whatever you want.’ And when he stitched it, he didn’t disturb my painting. He kept that quality so nicely. We appreciated each other’s work. He did the blouse. He picked up the motifs from my painting and did the stitching on the blouse using Zardozi embroidery. Little bit of the border I have done, I did the dupatta, but he has done the stitching work using motifs from my painting. He did it so beautifully, so subtly and so elegantly, that it is looking stunning.
You’ve used a lot of animal imagery, especially elephants. And the style is a blend of Kalighat painting and Pattachitra. Could you talk a little about that?
Actually, it is the subject of togetherness. And they’re celebrating the life with the world, with what the universe has: birds, animals, water, wind, flower and the human being. So, these are not gods and goddesses painted over there. They are all human beings. There are musicians playing instruments, dancing, holding garlands for the couple, celebrating the parinaya, the bibaah (marriage). So that’s what I painted. And the animal came because I know Anant is fond of animals and in Jamnagar, we all saw that fact. I have a little soft corner for Anant, Isha and Akash. When they were very young, maybe 12 years back, they proposed me to do a big painting for their mother’s birthday, and they gifted it to their mother.
They (the Ambanis) are fond of traditional crafts. I know the family very well. I have painted for Kokila ji (Kokilaben Ambani). I have met Nita ji many times. I know all the family members, Tina, Deepti... So, I know what kind of colours they generally wear. They’re very fond of pink. Pink or gulabi rang, as used during Holi, is an auspicious colour.
So, I did the colour scheme with a variety of tones of pink. Sometimes I used orange with pink; sometimes mixed blue to create a darker shade of pink, to make the figures stand out, while keeping [the artwork] a monochromatic pink.
I decided this should be like my painting, so I drew the work directly on the fabric, I didn’t use any tracing paper. Apart from the faces, for which I did a little pencil drawing because I didn’t want to risk it, everything else was drawn spontaneously with a red pen.
So, do the 12 panels stand for 12 months of a year?
Yes, it could be. Whatever you feel like. Art is something that allows everybody to think and interpret in their own way.
Will Radhika display the lehenga?
She’s going to frame it immediately. When she saw the work on Zoom, she said, ‘Jayasri auntie, I want to frame it. How to frame it, you will tell me. I will wear it on a very good occasion. I want to wear it on the wedding day, but I can’t because there is a colour scheme that I have to wear, that is our ritual. But I will wear it on 13th (July).’ Then I got to know that it was for the blessing ceremony (Shubh Aashirwad).
Will you be making another such lehenga in the future?
Never. I will not even try. This was like a new venture and I’m really very happy because I would have not thought of doing something like that. But I’m not going to paint again any lehenga or anything like that. Because this is a piece of art. I will not be able to reproduce a second like that. Impossible. I may paint a little something for my grandchild one day, but nothing commercial.
I may try something different on textile. I have done in the past for Darshan Shah’s Weavers Studio in Calcutta. I’d made three 4ft x 19ft long panels: Ganga, Jamuna, Saraswati. I did the drawings and painted with colours and she steamed it each time. Those kinds of things I may make, but I’m not going to reproduce another lehenga again.
You come from an illustrious artist family. What mark as an artist you want to leave behind?
I am very lucky and blessed to be born in such a family. My father was a hard-core businessman. But he was like a saint. He earned money but never kept money in his pocket. He helped others to grow. My mother is like Annapurna and our house was Annapurna’r hotel. Everybody who’d come, would be fed. My father used to chant chandi (chant) fluently. I used to be mesmerised. Baba planted the seed of creativity in my heart. When I was 11 years old, he would spend Sundays reciting Rabindranath Tagore’s poetry. I’d read the difficult, emotionally-wrought poems Karna Kunti Songbad and Debotar Grash. I got drawn to understanding human sentimentality, mythology, history. I helped my mother with alpona (rangoli) during Durga Puja. I could not only get my uncle Sakti Burman once in a blue moon, over a trunk call. I first started writing poetry and then shifted to painting.
Are you also related to modernist art master Nandalal Bose?
No. That is a wrong idea.
You studied at Kala Bhavan at Santiniketan, which turns 105 years old this year. The open-air education there is very different from other art schools.
Of course. They first teach you how to think. My first teacher in Santiniketan, Sanat Kar told us to look at my first still life — apple — the way I want to see it and paint. Ganesh Haloi (who teaches history of art) is my godfather, my mentor, a big pillar who has my back.
You went to France to learn graphic art and printmaking?
I went to Paris and south of France to work with printmaker Monsieur Ceizer. I learnt a little bit over there. But I learnt the most at Society of Contemporary Artists (in Kolkata). They had a studio just opposite Jyoti cinema hall. From Ganesh Pyne to Ganesh Haloi to Amitabha Banerjee, Shyamal Dutta Ray, Bikash Bhattacharjee, whoever you name, all those artists used to come there for adda and they also had a (printing) press there. I learnt many things from them. Amitabhda used to come in the studio, see my work and give me feedback and tips.
One day, I sent my work to the Germany Biennale and my graphic prints were selected by Arun Bose, a very famous printmaker, who was Ganesh Haloi’s teacher and lived in the US. I was the youngest among the printmakers to be selected. Later, I got a National Academy Award from Lalit Kala. These were huge encouragements.
Graphics, in those days, was very experimental for me, and every moment was a surprise because we were not equipped well. I worked through power outages and held candles to see how the prints have come.
From the goddesses and women to the female figure, could you talk about the feminine and feminist iconography in your artwork?
Frankly speaking, I am from Bengal, and I have been brought up seeing Ma Durga and Ma Kali. My father believed that all girls possessed a motherly, nurturer quality. I think, women are very powerful. We are born with power. We are the universe. You see the tree, how much strength she has, she germinates, grows big, bears fruits and flower, birds come to it. I want to say to people, please nurture little girls because she is the one who will hold the universe healthy and prosperous. At the same time, all the girls should know that we have got inner strength, and can fight out (any situation).
Look at the strength of river Ganga. She came to this Earth to give the moksha (liberation) to the Ashtavashus (demigods). Eight times she conceived and floated her seven children in the river to liberate them. She sacrificed her motherly feeling. At the same time, there is Durga and Kali and their Asur vadh (killing the demon).
I see Ganga in a very powerful manner. I made my Jahnavi series when all of us were going through the COVID period. So, my Jahnavi is wearing a mask and her river is floating with a lot of dead bodies, she washed them out. She’s not holding on. You are very powerful and you have to be strong. That’s my message to women.
How do you respond to trolls who think you paint deities and to those who take an affront to artists reimagining gods in their work?
I don’t actually paint gods and goddess. My paintings have women and my women are very powerful. I look at the woman as beauty, and because they have a headgear, [the onlooker might see them] as gods and goddesses. She’s sitting under a tree, plants by her side, feeding a baby.
One day, I was passing through a Varanasi gully and there I saw a woman selling Shivalingam. She was voluptuous, big, and had curly hair. I came back and spontaneously started painting her. When I looked at her, I saw power. She looked like Parvati. My connection with women is like that. This is my fantasy world.
I think they (trolls, naysayers) misunderstand me, they think my figures are gods and goddess. A lot of people don’t want to put any powerful painting in their house. So, it’s not easy to paint a powerful woman. At the same time, you look at the beautiful sky. The sun has got fire. The samundar (ocean) is deep. There is danger. You see anything beautiful, the danger lurks behind. It’s there in mother Durga, too. Don’t see the beauty, see the power in the beauty. We always say, this girl is like Lakshmi, or she sings so well, like Saraswati, or she feeds like Annapurna, or gets angry like Kali. I’ve been brought up like that. I relate to it and produce it in my work. I don’t think I’m painting a Kali. My Kalis are my women. I have done Draupadi series; my Draupadi, my Krishna, my Jahnavi are all powerful women but they are not gods or goddesses.
This is the centenary year of FN Sousa, how do you see the portrayal of women in his art? His art was labelled obscene and he had to leave the country.
He was a very powerful artist. He was very witty, had a lot of humour. Souza’s women are voluptuous, brave. Sometimes, I think, maybe he was frustrated, maybe he didn’t find the beauty and softness in the woman, maybe whoever he met, he felt that way. That could be his (the artist’s) feeling. Even when you think of Picasso, Picasso’s work also has voluptuous women, a little on the vulgarity side, but it doesn’t mean that he was not nice or all women are like this. Sometimes, it [the art] becomes like that. I love his [Souza’s] strokes, I love his boldness. Souza is Souza. To me, MF Husain, Souza, [SH] Raza, they are whom we [artists] pray to, but no artist intentionally does something [to provoke]. They feel [and make art] originally, I think people should consider that and understand their emotional thoughts. Artists have a beautiful mind. I think, we need to learn more about it.
And that’s why the royalty of yore and the rich now patronise art. Could you please throw some light on the importance of art and commerce?
Art always needs a patron. Even if you see in history, the Navaratna sabha and all that we have read about, the poet, singer, dancer, artist were patronised by the kings, queens, zamindars. Of course, somebody has to have the love for art and they have to have the money to spend and nurture the creative people, like Tansen was (in Akbar’s court). Without that, the creative people will die. We all need a patron, we cannot deny that.
Although when I started painting, I never thought I will sell my painting. I wanted to be a good artist. That journey, that desire is still there.
What next?
I am now working on a long project, for a solo exhibition in Art Alive Gallery in Delhi. And, again I am talking about the universe. This time, I am using cowries, sea shells, conch…on how crores and crores of cowries germinate. The process of the universe and ecosystem. And it will be very much women-centric.
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