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Lot Essay
“Ram Kumar had to undergo the final rite of purification by renouncing not only the human body which he had done earlier but also its habitation on earth” (N. Verma, ‘From Solitude to Salvation’, Ram Kumar, New Delhi, 2007, p. 24).
Having grown up in the hills of Himachal Pradesh, many of the abstract landscapes painted by Ram Kumar in the later phase of his career might represent a desire to return to the natural serenity of his childhood. Deliberating on his increasing fascination with abstraction, Ram Kumar stated, “My work is now guided by a concern with plastic qualities. I am more deeply involved with the form than with the content. When one is young and beginning, one’s work is dominated by content, by ideas – but as one grows older, one turns to the language of painting itself. I have grown detached – I want to find the same peace that the mystics found” (Artist statement, Ram Kumar: A Journey Within, New Delhi, 1996, p. 117).
Kumar’s abstracted landscapes, like the present lot, draw inspiration from the artist’s childhood memories as well as a lifetime of experiences and artistic exploration. “The browns, greys and blues, the occasional green or orange, are areas of positive sensation. They are also premises of suggestion – indicative of landforms, stretches of water and sky, passage of clouds, valley, ranges of hills, qualities of light, bonded together in a palpable mood” (R. Bartholomew, Indian Contemporary Art Post Independence, New Delhi, 1997, p. 239). The present lot represents a nuanced engagement with Kumar’s past, expressing through its brushstrokes a history of artistic evolution – the colors of the sky and earth evoke memories of the artist’s youth, while a ribbon of Prussian blue eternalizes the Ganges, a river and its ecosystems that preoccupied him for well over a decade. Underscoring the unique visual vocabulary that Kumar perfected after moving away from representation through a series of renunciations in the 1950s and 60s, the present lot, painted almost half a century later, represents the zenith of his liberated aesthetic.
Having grown up in the hills of Himachal Pradesh, many of the abstract landscapes painted by Ram Kumar in the later phase of his career might represent a desire to return to the natural serenity of his childhood. Deliberating on his increasing fascination with abstraction, Ram Kumar stated, “My work is now guided by a concern with plastic qualities. I am more deeply involved with the form than with the content. When one is young and beginning, one’s work is dominated by content, by ideas – but as one grows older, one turns to the language of painting itself. I have grown detached – I want to find the same peace that the mystics found” (Artist statement, Ram Kumar: A Journey Within, New Delhi, 1996, p. 117).
Kumar’s abstracted landscapes, like the present lot, draw inspiration from the artist’s childhood memories as well as a lifetime of experiences and artistic exploration. “The browns, greys and blues, the occasional green or orange, are areas of positive sensation. They are also premises of suggestion – indicative of landforms, stretches of water and sky, passage of clouds, valley, ranges of hills, qualities of light, bonded together in a palpable mood” (R. Bartholomew, Indian Contemporary Art Post Independence, New Delhi, 1997, p. 239). The present lot represents a nuanced engagement with Kumar’s past, expressing through its brushstrokes a history of artistic evolution – the colors of the sky and earth evoke memories of the artist’s youth, while a ribbon of Prussian blue eternalizes the Ganges, a river and its ecosystems that preoccupied him for well over a decade. Underscoring the unique visual vocabulary that Kumar perfected after moving away from representation through a series of renunciations in the 1950s and 60s, the present lot, painted almost half a century later, represents the zenith of his liberated aesthetic.