Untitled

Ram Kumar first visited Benaras in 1960 to sketch his impressions and experiences of the famed holy city on the banks of the river Ganges. Of this trip, made with fellow artist M.F. Husain, he recalls, "Every sight was like a new composition, a still life artistically organised to be interpreted in colours. It was not merely outward appearances which were fascinating but they were vibrant with an inner life of their own, very deep and profound, which left an everlasting impression on my artistic sensibility. I could feel a new visual language emerging from the depths of an experience." (Artist statement, Ram Kumar: A Journey Within, New Delhi, 1996, p. 89)

This everlasting impression that Benaras left on Kumar gave rise to a major transition in his painting in the early 1960s, perhaps the most significant development over the course of his career. Abandoning figuration completely, the artist sought to express through his unique abstract visions of the landscape of India's holiest city the stark contrasts he had experienced there, particularly those between divinity and mortality, the celebration of life and the rituals of death.