Ram Kumar
(1924 - 2018)
Untitled
After a brief period when he painted figurative works in the 1950s, Ram Kumar turned towards landscapes, which gradually became abstract in form and technique as the artist's vision evolved. According to critic Richard Bartholomew, "In the period from 1960-64 Ram alternated between the "literary" and the "pure" styles of abstraction. Colour and the complexity of imagery determined the mood of the painting. The years from 1960-64 comprised a...
After a brief period when he painted figurative works in the 1950s, Ram Kumar turned towards landscapes, which gradually became abstract in form and technique as the artist's vision evolved. According to critic Richard Bartholomew, "In the period from 1960-64 Ram alternated between the "literary" and the "pure" styles of abstraction. Colour and the complexity of imagery determined the mood of the painting. The years from 1960-64 comprised a predominantly "grey" period, the sternest and the most austere in his career. Using the encaustic process Ram even delved into shades of black. Greys derived from blues and browns set off the facets of the textures, the drifts, the engulfed landforms, the isthumus shapes and the general theme of the fecund but desolate wasteland." (Gagan Gill ed., Ram Kumar: A Journey Within, New Delhi: Vadehra Art Gallery, 1996, p. 30) Kumar's works from the 1960s, especially the well-known, early Benaras ones, were semi- representational, depicting architectonic elements-houses, passages, the iconic ghats -and relied heavily on Cubist principles. This period turned into one of pure abstraction after the 1970s: "Instead of depending on textural effects and the vitality of the variegated detail, built up carefully with the spatula, Ram now depends on colour planes, and multiple perspectives in which colour is daringly and dynamically used, often very thin, and almost like a wash, and not as a foil for textural eff ects but as a kind of sprung rhythm that tensions the theme and carries within its body its own symbolism." (Gill, p. 31) The present lot, is painted in muted tones similar to his '60s grey works, but rendered in the patchwork quilt-like colour planes of his later paintings. According to art critic Meera Menezes, "...the outer landscape would transform itself into the inner mindscape, which in turn would manifest itself on canvas and paper. The moods and sensations that were evoked in him by his meditation on the outer world would play out as colours and textures." (Meera Menezes, Ram Kumar: Traversing the Landscapes of the Mind, New Delhi and Mumbai: Saffronart, 2016, p. 13)
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Lot
74
of
78
EVENING SALE | MUMBAI, LIVE
16 FEBRUARY 2017
Estimate
Rs 65,00,000 - 85,00,000
$98,485 - 128,790
ARTWORK DETAILS
Ram Kumar
Untitled
Signed and dated 'RAM KUMAR 70' (on the reverse)
1970
Oil on canvas
49.25 x 49.25 in (125.4 x 125.4 cm)
PROVENANCE: Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
EXHIBITED:India Modern: Narratives from 20th Century Indian Art , New York: DAG Modern, 18 March - 6 June 2015; New Delhi: DAG Modern, 13 July - 12 September 2015
Category: Painting
Style: Abstract
ARTWORK SIZE:
Height of Figure: 6'