Important Notice

“Ram Kumar embodies the drift and flux of his Heraclitean universe in a structure hinged together from a succession of collapses and seizures, stresses and strains. In dissolving and re-concretising the motif, he subjects visible reality to prismatic analysis: his topography is a diagram of forces in a field rather than a picturesque post-card view; each city, each trapfall is a summation of views presented from various angles, arranged on the... “Ram Kumar embodies the drift and flux of his Heraclitean universe in a structure hinged together from a succession of collapses and seizures, stresses and strains. In dissolving and re-concretising the motif, he subjects visible reality to prismatic analysis: his topography is a diagram of forces in a field rather than a picturesque post-card view; each city, each trapfall is a summation of views presented from various angles, arranged on the same plane for the discernment of the viewer” (Ranjit Hoskote, “Parts of a World: Reflections on the Art of Ram Kumar”, Ram Kumar, Saffronart and Pundole Art Gallery exhibition catalogue, Mumbai, 2002, p. 7).

In the present lot, an untitled abstract landscape, Ram Kumar demonstrates, once again, his mastery of space and perspective. The influence of cubism is evident in the angular planes of colour from which this landscape has been constructed, as well as the sharp convergences and divides between them. Like other cubist paintings, even the perspective in Kumar’s canvas appears disjointed – sometimes giving the illusion of a bird’s eye view, and other times, on approaching the work from a different angle, of a direct view of the horizon. Flat wedges of green and brown land and dark tree-like forms seem to edge out what little sky is visible in one corner, appearing to heave and roll as the viewer’s eye moves across the surface.

As Ranjit Hoskote notes, the artist’s semi-abstract landscapes negotiate stillness and movement, perceived universes and the conceived ones. “Ram Kumar’s landscapes are orchestrated as a dynamic equilibrium of floating planes, triggered weights and directional vectors. We respond to these meditative frames precisely because they have moved from the perceptual to the conceptual, from semblance to structure” (Ibid.).

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