CHILA BURMAN’s influence manifests itself in two ways. First, she speaks up for other British Asian women artists so that they don’t have to through all the struggles she has experienced.
And second, her success has made her a role model. In fact, these days she is quite a star, charmingly telling BBC listeners on Radio 4’s Front Row she wanted to be considered “Queen” of the art world.
Dr Chila Kumari Singh Burman MBE – just “Chila” to most people – has been an artist for 40 years and wishes recognition had come sooner. Born in Bootle into a Hindu Punjabi family, her trademark is an icecream van with a tiger similar to the one her father would drive around Liverpool when he came over from India.
Over the years, Chila has been described as a “Black artist”, a “British Asian artist”, a “feminist artist”, and “an Indian artist”, and although there were periods when these labels could be applied to her, she now feels she has outgrown them all.
“I am just an artist,” she said. “With someone who is white, you don’t say he or she is a ‘white artist’.”
The commissions haven’t stopped coming since she...
