Ram Kumar
(1924 - 2018)
Spring
Speaking about this focus on technique, and the prism-like view of the natural world that it has resulted in, Ranjit Hoskote notes that, “Ram Kumar translates the landscape into a system of lines, planes, blocks; their machine-edged logic, entering into dialogue with texture and tone, govern the distribution of significant masses over the picture space. Bridges, spires, landslides, peaks: all these motifs, besides being signposts to Ram Kumar’s...
Speaking about this focus on technique, and the prism-like view of the natural world that it has resulted in, Ranjit Hoskote notes that, “Ram Kumar translates the landscape into a system of lines, planes, blocks; their machine-edged logic, entering into dialogue with texture and tone, govern the distribution of significant masses over the picture space. Bridges, spires, landslides, peaks: all these motifs, besides being signposts to Ram Kumar’s private itinerary, play a part as cantilever, bastion or buttress in binding each painting together as a mobile yet always coherent composition” (“The Poet of the Visionary Landscape”, Ram Kumar: A Journey Within, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, 1996, p. 38).
“When he dissolves and re-concretises the motif, Ram Kumar does not simply replicate the visible; we respond to his meditative frames precisely because they have moved from the perceptual to the conceptual, from semblance to structure. He does not mirror reality, but subjects it to a prismatic analysis: his topography, for instance, is a diagram of forces in a field rather than a picturesque post-card view; each city, each trapfall is a summation of views from various angles, arranged on the same plane for the discernment of the viewer” (Ibid.).
The present lot, an early spring landscape, offers the artist’s unique, fragmented view of a clear blue sky and fields that are finally warming after a long winter. With sharp lines and angular wedges of colour, Ram Kumar communicates the most subtle details of the scene, including the slow springtime thaw spreading across the land, gradually turning it green.
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Lot
74
of
85
SUMMER AUCTION 2009
10-11 JUNE 2009
Estimate
$80,000 - 100,000
Rs 37,60,000 - 47,00,000
Winning Bid
$87,400
Rs 41,07,800
(Inclusive of Buyer's Premium)
USD payment only.
Why?
ARTWORK DETAILS
Ram Kumar
Spring
Signed in Devnagari and dated in English (lower left)
1961
Oil on canvas
41.5 x 32.5 in (105.4 x 82.6 cm)
EXHIBITED:
Contemporary Indian Art organized by the Lalit Kala Akademi, Nairobi, 1965
Category: Painting
Style: Abstract
ARTWORK SIZE:
Height of Figure: 6'