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Lot 58

 

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“His landscapes are as lonely, as isolated, as fragile. And they are filled as equally, and as eloquently, with the illusion of time.”
— (Richard Bartholomew, “1960s”, Gagan Gil ed., Ram Kumar: A Journey Within, New Delhi: Vadehra Art Gallery, 1996, p. 99)

Ram Kumar’s visit to Banaras for the first time in 1960 precipitated what was perhaps one of the most significant developments in his career. The forlorn, alienated figures... “His landscapes are as lonely, as isolated, as fragile. And they are filled as equally, and as eloquently, with the illusion of time.”
— (Richard Bartholomew, “1960s”, Gagan Gil ed., Ram Kumar: A Journey Within, New Delhi: Vadehra Art Gallery, 1996, p. 99)

Ram Kumar’s visit to Banaras for the first time in 1960 precipitated what was perhaps one of the most significant developments in his career. The forlorn, alienated figures that had occupied his canvases during the previous two decades receded, eventually disappearing altogether. In their place emerged semi-abstracted landscapes and cityscapes, where traces of architectural forms remained subtly discernible. The sense of loneliness, pathos, and inertia that once resonated through his human figures now found expression in a broader, more universal image of the landscape-a subject that would come to define the remainder of his oeuvre. Describing the profound impact that trip made on his art, he wrote, “Every sight was like a new composition, a still life artistically organised to be interpreted in colours. It was not merely outward appearances which were fascinating but they were vibrant with an inner life of their own, very deep and profound, which left an everlasting impression on my artistic sensibility. I could feel a new visual language emerging from the depths of an experience.” (Artist quoted in Sham Lal, Nirmal Verma, Richard Bartholomew et al, “1960s”, Gagan Gil ed., Ram Kumar: A Journey Within, New Delhi: Vadehra Art Gallery, 1996, p. 89)

Kumar arrived in Banaras with his companion M F Husain on a cold winter night. The city that was usually brightly lit and teeming with thronging crowds appeared ghostly and eerily deserted-an impression that lingered in his mind for decades and influenced many of his own landscapes. The two artists stayed at the home of Shripat Rai, son of writer Munshi Premchand, and explored the city and its ghats independently. Each evening, they would reunite to share their experiences. He later recalled, “Wandering along the ghats in a vast sea of humanity, I saw faces like masks bearing marks of suffering and pain, similar to the blocks, doors and windows jutting out of dilapidated old houses, palaces, temples, the labyrinths of lanes and bylanes of the old city, hundreds of boats-I almost saw a new world, very strange, yet very familiar, very much my own.” (Artist quoted in Gil ed., p. 89)

In works like the present lot, Kumar sought to depict not a literal representation of the city but rather communicate his own emotional reaction to the human suffering and agony he witnessed at close quarters. Moving through its serpentine lanes and winding ghats where crowds gathered to cremate their dead, he encountered life and death, humanity and divinity coexisting in stark contrast and sought to capture the essence of these experiences in his art. According to critic Richard Bartholomew, “He had gone to the city to interpret its visual experience in terms of colour and forms. The confrontation was intense-the doorways, arches and steps were his themes. The meander of forms constituted a dramatic structure. He noted the structure of the city as a relic, its wharfage and haven for the philosophy of death and passage of time.” (Richard Bartholomew, Gagan Gil ed., p. 102) Rejecting traditional architectural conventions, Kumar deconstructs the landscape into fragmented, simplified forms arranged at unconventional angles. He portrays the tall temple structures that line Banaras’ ghats in a proto-Cubist style, notably devoid of human figures. His monochromatic palette of greys and whites heightens the sense of desolation and solitude, perhaps echoing the “grey period” of his early 1960s works.

Kumar returned to the city several times after his first trip, both physically and through his landscapes which grew increasingly abstract in the years that followed. He once recalled, “Why Benares and not some place else? It was at that point in my life, I happened to visit Benares and it was all there before me... Its uniqueness lies in its age-old associations, faith of millions... During my several visits to this city, my effort has been to fathom a little of its mysterious depths which I could interpret in my paintings.” (Artist quoted in Sham Lal, Nirmal Verma, Richard Bartholomew et al, “The Artist at Work”, Gagan Gil ed., Ram Kumar: A Journey Within, New Delhi: Vadehra Art Gallery, 1996, p. 191)

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