Ram Kumar has been described as one of India’s foremost artists of the modern era. He was a vital part of the first generation of post independent Indian artists alongside others such as MF Hussain, FN Souza and SH Raza, all members of the famous Progressive Artists Group (‘PAG’) based in Bombay.
Ram Kumar was born in 1924 in the hills of Shimla in a large middle-class family. After his family shifted to New Delhi, he pursued a master’s degree in economics from St Stephens College before pursuing banking. The career of a banker did not appeal to the young Ram Kumar and art soon became his calling.
In 1949, with a small loan from his father and a scholarship from the French Embassy, he travelled to Paris to study art under renowned French artists Andre Lhote and Fernand Leger. Settling into a small flat on Rue Marie Davy in the Alesia district of the 14th arrondissement in Paris, he joined the Pacifist Peace Movement and briefly became a member of the French Communist Party. During his stay in Paris, Ram Kumar came into contact with prominent artists and writers such Louis Aragon and Paul Eluard. His focus became the ‘human condition’ which is displayed in various figurative works where Ram Kumar has sought to maintain the Indian reality while embracing his artistic learnings in France.
After years in Paris and travelling throughout much of Europe, he chose to return to his country (India) to continue his artistic development. His figurative style was marked by the anguished expressions of the figures in his paintings which are mirrored on his neighbours in Karol Bagh, West Delhi, many of whom were unemployed and belonged to an urban class of India, which experienced a sense of disillusionment and pain after India’s partition.
In 1960, Ram Kumar visited Varanasi with his friend and fellow painter, MF Hussain, which marked a transformative chapter in his artistic journey. The city’s spiritual essence captivated him and inspired him to begin a celebrated series of paintings known as ‘Benaras’ that would become central to his legacy. From this point on, he completely abandoned his figurative style with abstract landscapes becoming his signature.
In addition to being a great artist, he was a very passionate writer much like his young brother, acclaimed Hindi writer Nirmal Verma. In fact, Ram Kumar also wrote in Hindi and received the Prem Chand Puraskar for a collection of short stories.
He received the prestigious John D. Rockerfeller III Fellowship to visit and travel to the United States in 1970. Ram Kumar’s works have been exhibited regularly in India and internationally, with his ‘Women’ (1953) currently on display at the prestigious Venice Biennale (2024), alongside a contingent of other Indian artists such as Jamini Roy, SH Raza and FN Souza. Ram Kumar previously participated in the Venice Biennale in 1958 and also the Tokyo Biennale (1957, 1959) and Bienal de Sao Paulo in Brazil (1961, 1965, 1980).
In his lifetime he was also the recipient of many awards including the Padma Shri in 1972 and the Padma Bhushan in 2010. Due to his affiliation with France, he was bestowed with the title, Officier Ordre Des Arts et des Lettres in 2003 and is one of the few Indians to receive this honour (others not all but include Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan and writer Mahasweta Devi)
This year marks his 100-year centenary, and we celebrate Ram Kumar, a traveller, writer, a true creative and a pioneer of modern art in India.
(This article has been written by Artist Ram Kumar's grandson, Avimukt Verma)
(Images copyright: Avimukt Verma)
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