Krishna

Krishna as child and god, serenader of women and killer of demons, dominates this work. The divine flautist is surrounded by other figures from Burman?s ongoing fantasia, in which life is continuously being transfigured into myth: we find the peacock here and the adolencents, and also a riveting centaur-like figure who prances yet remains melancholy, keeps the best of the dance yet retains the detachment of the observer, and is perhaps a portrait of the artist as chronicler and archivist of human dispositions. These counterpoints, worked into the rhythm of the composition, underscore the nature of Indic celebration as ?grave festivity?, in the acholar Heinrich Zimmer?s perceptive phrase.

- Ranjit Hoskote