Important Notice

"I wanted to develop elements in figurative painting and go beyond it." - RAM KUMAR

The present lot is an important transitional work painted towards the end of Ram Kumar's early figurative phase. Kumar's paintings of the 1950s were preoccupied with capturing the existential anguish of humanity. "As a young artist, Ram Kumar was captivated by, or rather obsessed with, the human face because of the ease and intensity with which... "I wanted to develop elements in figurative painting and go beyond it." - RAM KUMAR

The present lot is an important transitional work painted towards the end of Ram Kumar's early figurative phase. Kumar's paintings of the 1950s were preoccupied with capturing the existential anguish of humanity. "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 the human condition... There is no trace of seething rage nor any hint of a protest here. These men do not even need to speak to us. Their mere looks are enough to tell us all we want to know about them, all that has made them what they are. (Sham Lal, "Between Being and Nothingness," Gagan Gill ed., Ram Kumar: A Journey Within, New Delhi: Vadehra Art Gallery, 1996, pp. 15?16)

In 1958, when Composition was painted, Kumar was briefly based in Paris, working out of a rented apartment he shared with fellow Progressive Artists' Group member S H Raza. In the same year, he also participated in several group exhibitions in London and New York, and won the National Award for his painting Woman. Even as he mastered figuration during this decade, Kumar was slowly departing from these forms, and embracing landscape and abstraction in his art. In works like the present lot, the landscapes and figures merge into each other, with the latter becoming more and more obscure.

"The figure, which played so important a role in the entire drama of Ram???s odyssey, was already beating 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 - the shadowy outlines of dilapidated houses, a floated glimpse of the city roofs, the vertical thrust of an electric pole suddenly surged forward, pushing the figures on to the edges, occupying the central stage, as it were... In one of the last paintings of this phase one is completely bewitched - and deeply moved by the hollow forlorn eyes of a teenaged girl, already half-hidden in the margins, staring at us so hungrily... Was it meant to be the farewell gesture, before the figure unobtrusively but finally departs from his paintings?" (Nirmal Verma, "From Solitude to Salvation," Gagan Gill ed., Ram Kumar: A Journey Within, New Delhi: Vadhera Art Gallery, 1996, pp. 23-24)

The present lot marks a significant turning point in the artist's career and provides a glimpse into his famous abstract landscapes, including the iconic Benaras series, which would come to define him as one of India's greatest modernists.

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