Ram Kumar | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1924-09-23)23 September 1924[1] |
| Died | 14 April 2018(2018-04-14) (aged 93) |
| Education | Sharada Ukil School of Art, New Delhi (1945) |
| Known for | Painting |
| Awards | Fellowship of the Lalit Kala Akademi, 2011[2] Padma Bhushan, 2010[3] Officers Arts et Letter, 2003 |
Ram Kumar (23 September 1924[6] – 14 April 2018) was an Indian artist and writer who has been described as one of India's foremost abstract painters.[7] He was associated with theProgressive artists' group along with greats likeM.F. Hussain,Tyeb Mehta,S.H. Raza.[8] He is said to be one of the first Indian artists to give upfigurativism forabstract art.[9] His art commands high prices in the domestic and international market. His work "The Vagabond" fetched $1.1 million atChristie's, setting another world record for the artist.He is also one of the few Indian Modernist masters accomplished in writing as well as painting.[10]
Ram Kumar Verma was born inShimla, the capital of the Indian state ofHimachal Pradesh in a large middle-class family of eight brothers and sisters.[11] His father was a government employee fromPatiala inPunjab, India who worked in the Civil and Administrative Division in the British Government.[12][13]While pursuing M.A. in Economics fromSt. Stephen's College, Delhi,[14] he chanced upon an art exhibition in 1945.[15] One evening, after "loitering" aroundConnaught Place with his friends fromSt Stephen's College, he landed up at an art exhibition.[16]
I saw paintings like that for the first time and it made me so intrigued that I returned several times".[16]
Ram Kumar took classes at the Sharda Ukil School of Art underSailoz Mukherjee and gave up employment at a bank in 1948 to pursue art.[17] Sailoz Mukherjee was a painter fromShantiniketan School[18] who introduced him to still life painting with live models.[19] While a student there, he metRaza at an exhibition.Raza and Ram became good friends.[20] He convinced his father to pay for a one-way ticket to Paris and studied further there underAndre Lhote andFernand Léger.[21] In Paris, the pacificist peace movement attracted him and he joined theFrench Communist Party. Seeking inspiration in the Social Realists such asKathe and Fourgenon.[22] He was befriended byS.H. Raza andMF Hussain who are two major artists.[23]
Ram Kumar paintedabstract landscapes, usually in oil or acrylic.[24] He was also associated with theProgressive artists' group.[25]
Ram Kumar has participated in various exhibitions in and out of India, including the 1958Venice Biennale[26] and the Festival of India shows in the then USSR and Japan in 1987 and 1988.[27] One of Ram Kumar's latest solo exhibitions was in 2008 in Delhi.[28] Ram Kumar also wrote in Hindi and eight collections of his works have been published, as well as two novels and a travelogue.[29]
The human condition is the main concern of the painter[30] manifested in his early works by the alienated individual within the city.[21] Later the city, specificallyVaranasi with its dilapidated, crammed houses, conveys a sense of hopelessness.[31] Increasingly abstract works done in sweeping strokes of paint evoke both exultation of natural spaces and more recently an incipient violence within human habitation.[21]
As the interest in Indian art has grown, paintings by Ram Kumar are getting increasing recognition in the art market.[32]
Ram Kumar received thePadma Shri in 1972[33] and thePadma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honour, in 2010.[34]Lal Bhi Udhaas Ho Sakta Hai (Even Red Can be Sad), a 2015documentary feature directed byAmit Dutta and produced by theGovernment of India'sFilms Division charts the various works of Kumar.[35]
Ram Kumar was also the older brother of the famous Hindi writer,Nirmal Verma and younger brother of Colonel,Raj Kumar Verma. He lived and worked inDelhi until his death in 2018.[36]
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