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Lot 59

 

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“I have never been and never will be completely abstract... Take a part of a tree or a branch without its surroundings and it turns abstract.” - RAM KUMAR

Ram Kumar’s early melancholic figures ceded ground to the background as his landscapes sublimated the pathos of his sad-eyed men and women. Architectural forms followed suit till they, too, disappeared to leave behind a purely abstract canvas. In the absence of form, Kumar... “I have never been and never will be completely abstract... Take a part of a tree or a branch without its surroundings and it turns abstract.” - RAM KUMAR

Ram Kumar’s early melancholic figures ceded ground to the background as his landscapes sublimated the pathos of his sad-eyed men and women. Architectural forms followed suit till they, too, disappeared to leave behind a purely abstract canvas. In the absence of form, Kumar depended on colour to supply formal logic, harmonising shades to evoke deep feeling. In the 1980s, the year the present lot was made, representational forms slowly began reappearing in his works. Art writer Meera Menezes says of this resurgence, “Familiar forms such as domes and pillars are resurrected and cityscapes slowly emerge again. Surprisingly, elements from the landscape, such as trees, insert themselves into the labyrinth of streets, offering relief with their bright flashes of green.” (Meera Menezes, Ram Kumar: Traversing the Landscapes of the Mind, Mumbai: Saffronart, 2016, p. 13)

Kumar uses broad, easy strokes to create gentle movement coupled with a soothing palette of greens, blues and greys. He juxtaposes front views of willowy trees swaying in the wind against birds-eye views in a multiplanar perspective that “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... 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 postcard view; each city, each trapfall is a summation of views from various angles, arranged on the same plane for the discernment of the viewer.” (Ranjit Hoskote, “The Poet of the Visionary Landscape”, Gagan Gill ed., Ram Kumar: A Journey Within, New Delhi: Vadehra Art Gallery, 1996, p. 38)

The artist’s suggestive use of colour and atypical construction creates an evocative image that captures the very experience of nature. Moved by Kumar’s works, Richard Bartholomew explains how Ram Kumar has honed the tools of his craft to produce a poetic encounter between viewer and work. “Whenever I see a Ram Kumar painting... I get the feeling that I’ve been there before... The very forms of the composition suggest that. The hard and the soft, the tangible and the elusive, the structure and the sensation... Ram’s work draws us into its field of vision, involving us visually, stimulating us to see this detail or that... There is great depth, in perspective and feeling. The experience encountered is extremely refined. A reductive principle in composition and an immaculate technique determine the scale.” (“Ram Kumar ‘73”, Richard Bartholomew, The Art Critic, New Delhi: Bart, 2012, p. 536)

The landscape is the definitive form of Ram Kumar’s oeuvre. It is a celebration enabled by his devoted observation. Speaking of the attention to detail in Kumar’s works, art critic Ranjit Hoskote says, “The true subject of Ram Kumar’s art, perhaps, is the landscape as Beloved. In responding to the palpable eroticism of graze and blur, the stippling and studding of textures across these painted surfaces, we share his manifest rapture, his sense of stepping outside himself to attain communion with the Beloved.” (Ranjit Hoskote, “PARTS OF A WORLD: Reflections on the Art of Ram Kumar”, Saffronart, 2002, online)

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