Ram Kumar (b. 1924)

Previously in the collection of Samuel and Hope Efron, Washington D.C.

Samuel Efron was an international lawyer who eventually founded his own law firm and Hope Efron was an economist at the Department of Labor. They were an extremely philanthropic couple and they served on several boards and charitable institutions including The Center for Biomedical Ethics at the University of Virginia, Meridian House International, American Councils for International Education and Youth for Understanding.

Good overall condition. Minor areas of paint loss in areas of thicker impasto, most notable in the lower left quadrant. There is a light varnish on the painting.
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Throughout his life, Ram Kumar bore witness to pivotal movements in art history and these styles have infused his work, although his subject matter remains distinctly Indian. In the 1950s, Kumar moved to Paris where he studied under the great masters André Lhote and Fernand Léger. Influenced by their tutelage, and inspired by the holy city of Varanasi, he has essentially rendered Cubism to Indian landscape. 

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 toward abstraction 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 figuration 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.'  (G. Gill ed., Ram Kumar: A Journey Within, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, 1996, p.89)

Painted in 1964, this untitled landscape is a resplendent example of the artist’s early experimentation on the theme of Varanasi. In this work, the dramatic intensity of his early figurative paintings is retained in these canvases, executed in soft tones of grays, blues and yellows which have now acquired 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.'  (G. Gill, p.89)