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Lot Essay
“To trace Ram Kumar’s evolution as a painter is to map the course of contemporary Indian painting: in the spiritual crises he has undergone, the choices of style he has made, we see reflected the tensions of an unfolding post-colonial modernity, full of surprises and uncertainties. Ram Kumar has broken his pilgrimage at several way-stations of experiment.” (R. Hoskote, ‘The Poet of the Visionary Landscape’, Ram Kumar: A Journey Within, New Delhi, 1996, p. 36)
After moving abruptly from figuration to semi-abstract landscapes in the early 1960s, inspired by a transformative visit to Varanasi, the late 1960s saw Ram Kumar's visual vocabulary evolve once again to a more fluid, almost cartographic abstraction of land and sky. The artist’s landscapes of the late 1960s and early 1970s are endowed with an expansive spatial quality, akin to an amalgamation of different survey maps of wide swathes of unpopulated land. This is achieved through the artist’s deft use of multiple perspectives and broad, flat planes of colour. Although these landscapes are not realistic representations of elements from nature, “wedges of land and expanses of water; demarcations of land as arid and fertile; febrile rock and luxuriant vegetation; sunlight and shade; moisture and mist” are all communicated through his expressive use of colour. (R. Bartholomew, ‘The Abstract Principle in the Paintings of Ram Kumar’, Lalit Kala Contemporary 19 & 20, New Delhi, April-September 1975, p. 14)
In this important landscape, painted in 1969, the artist’s palette is dominated by browns, greens and ochre with hints of blue, mirroring the colours of the land. The overall composition is realised through subtle tonal variations that infuse the painting with a sense of energy and dynamism, converging at its darker center. In discussing Kumar’s iconic abstract configurations of this period, the critic Richard Bartholomew noted, “Towards the end of the 1960s Ram took stock of the entire situation, it appears […] he had come far, far away from the gaunt dramatic themes of his early paintings […] He then saw everything as an emanation of nature. But whilst he chose to release or reassemble the angular, mysterious forms, he also chose the multiple perspectives he had learnt to master.” (R. Bartholomew ‘The Abstract as a Pictorial Proposition’, Ram Kumar: A Journey Within, New Delhi, 1996, p. 30)
After moving abruptly from figuration to semi-abstract landscapes in the early 1960s, inspired by a transformative visit to Varanasi, the late 1960s saw Ram Kumar's visual vocabulary evolve once again to a more fluid, almost cartographic abstraction of land and sky. The artist’s landscapes of the late 1960s and early 1970s are endowed with an expansive spatial quality, akin to an amalgamation of different survey maps of wide swathes of unpopulated land. This is achieved through the artist’s deft use of multiple perspectives and broad, flat planes of colour. Although these landscapes are not realistic representations of elements from nature, “wedges of land and expanses of water; demarcations of land as arid and fertile; febrile rock and luxuriant vegetation; sunlight and shade; moisture and mist” are all communicated through his expressive use of colour. (R. Bartholomew, ‘The Abstract Principle in the Paintings of Ram Kumar’, Lalit Kala Contemporary 19 & 20, New Delhi, April-September 1975, p. 14)
In this important landscape, painted in 1969, the artist’s palette is dominated by browns, greens and ochre with hints of blue, mirroring the colours of the land. The overall composition is realised through subtle tonal variations that infuse the painting with a sense of energy and dynamism, converging at its darker center. In discussing Kumar’s iconic abstract configurations of this period, the critic Richard Bartholomew noted, “Towards the end of the 1960s Ram took stock of the entire situation, it appears […] he had come far, far away from the gaunt dramatic themes of his early paintings […] He then saw everything as an emanation of nature. But whilst he chose to release or reassemble the angular, mysterious forms, he also chose the multiple perspectives he had learnt to master.” (R. Bartholomew ‘The Abstract as a Pictorial Proposition’, Ram Kumar: A Journey Within, New Delhi, 1996, p. 30)