As a young artist, Ram Kumar was captivated by, or rather obsessed with, the
human face because of the ease and intensity with which it registers the drama of
life. The sad, desperate, lonely, hopeless or lost faces, which fill the canvases of
his early period, render with pathos his view of human condition. The human
condition is no overblown phrase in this context. It is pertinent because what
Ram Kumar tries to do in his early work is something more profound than
merely pointing to what can be cured by acts of social engineering. At the onset
of what is known as “phase of alienation” in Ram Kumar’s paintings, something
was happening very quietly, almost imperceptibly. The figure, which played so
important a role in the entire drama of his odyssey, was already being a retreat,
slowly, hesitantly, receding into the margins, almost merging with the dark greys
and browns of the horizons. And what till then only vaguely lurked in the
background, occupy the central stage. It is significant that at this stage when
Ram Kumar takes a decisive step into what is known as the non-figurative world
of abstraction, he also bids farewell to the literary moorings and its
expressionistic entourage. Without negating the writer in him, he begins to
travel light as a painter. Poetry is still there, with all its lyrical ardour and
dramatic intensity but now it acquires a kind of austere brilliance, a certain
ascetic purity which can be vividly seen in his Varanasi paintings. But more than
its technical innovations, the so-called abstract phase was an attempt to resolve a
deeper problem which seemed to trouble Ram Kumar at his fateful juncture. At
the later stage, nature came both as a release from his past and a return to it.
Simla with all its mountains have called Ram Kumar many time which led to his
return. It was in his stories that they made a strong presence, not merely as a
setting for background but as an integral part of the fictional landscape. Also a
nostalgic longing for a past gone for ever. They also symbolized peace and inner
security, as if by returning to them, one can salvage a spark of happiness from the
ruins of one’s adulthood.
Some of his solo shows include those in New York, Mumbai, New Delhi &
London. In 2002, a show of his work was organized in Mumbai, New Delhi,
San Francisco and New York. Other retrospectives of his work have been held
at the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi in 1994 and 1993; Jehangir
Art Gallery, Mumbai in 1993; and the Birla Museum, Kolkata in 1980. Ram
Kumar lives and works in New Delhi.
Text References:
Excerpt from the book Ram Kumar, Selected Works 1950-2010, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2010;
Excerpt from Ram Kumar’s Retrospective Catalogue, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, 1993.