Ram Kumar (b. 1924)

Ram Kumar's Varanasi series marks a significant shift in his work, from his post-Paris figurative phase to the non-figurative world of abstraction. The artist's choice of the sacred city of Varanasi as the catalyst and inspiration for this move to abstractions is not altogether surprising. Hindus believe that death or cremation in this holy city leads to liberation rather than rebirth in another form and in some ways these sentiments are reflected in the transition in Ram Kumar’s work from figurative to abstraction. In the words of the artist, 'sitting on the steps of the Manikarnika Ghat, watching the dead bodies some brought from distant villages in boats, waiting for their turn for liberation, I almost felt the disappearing boundary line between life and death.'  (Ram Kumar: A Journey Within, Vadehra Art Gallery, 1996)

In this work, one of the earliest examples of his Varanasi series, the dramatic intensity of his figurative work remains, but Kumar’s work acquires a kind of austere brilliance, a certain ascetic purity.  '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.'  (ibid.)

'Ram Kumar addressed himself to the formal aberrations of mismatched planes, jamming the horizontal perspective against top views inspired by site-mapping and aerial photography, and locking the muddy, impasto-built riverbank constructions into a Cubist geometrical analysis. Gradually, the architecture drained away from his canvasses: society itself passed from his concerns, until, during the late 1960’s, his paintings assumed the character of abstractionist hymns to nature.' (Saffron & Pundole Art Gallery exhibition, May – July 2002, p. 6.)