Ram Kumar (artist)

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Ram Kumar
Born(1924-09-23)23 September 1924[1]
Shimla, Punjab, British India
(now Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India)
Died14 April 2018(2018-04-14) (aged 93)
NationalityIndian
EducationSharada Ukil School of Art, New Delhi (1945)
Known forPainting
AwardsFellowship of the Lalit Kala Akademi, 2011[2]

Padma Bhushan, 2010[3]
Lifetime Achievement Award,
Government of Delhi[4]

Officers Arts et Letter, 2003
Kalidas Samman, 1986
Premchand Puraskar, 1972
Padmashree, 1972

J. D. Rockefeller III Fellowship, New York, 1970[5]

Ram Kumar (23 September 1924[6] – 14 April 2018) was an Indian artist and writer who has been described as one of India's foremost abstract painters.[7] He was associated with the Progressive artists' group along with greats like M.F. Hussain, Tyeb Mehta, S.H. Raza.[8] He is said to be one of the first Indian artists to give up figurativism for abstract art.[9] His art commands high prices in the domestic and international market. His work "The Vagabond" fetched $1.1 million at Christie's, setting another world record for the artist. He is also one of the few Indian Modernist masters accomplished in writing as well as painting.[10]

Early life and education[]

Ram Kumar Verma was born in Shimla, the capital of the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh in a large middle-class family of eight brothers and sisters.[11] His father was a government employee from Patiala in Punjab, India who worked in the Civil and Administrative Division in the British Government.[12][13] While pursuing M.A. in Economics from St. Stephen's College, Delhi,[14] he chanced upon an art exhibition in 1945.[15] One evening, after "loitering" around Connaught Place with his friends from St Stephen's College, he landed up at an art exhibition.[16]

I saw paintings like that for the first time and it made me so intrigued that I returned several times".[16]

Ram Kumar took classes at the Sharda Ukil School of Art under Sailoz Mukherjee and gave up employment at a bank in 1948 to pursue art.[17] Sailoz Mukherjee was a painter from Shantiniketan School[18] who introduced him to still life painting with live models.[19] While a student there, he met Raza at an exhibition. Raza and Ram became good friends.[20] He convinced his father to pay for a one-way ticket to Paris and studied further there under Andre Lhote and Fernand Léger.[21] In Paris, the pacificist peace movement attracted him and he joined the French Communist Party. Seeking inspiration in the Social Realists such as Kathe and Fourgenon.[22] He was befriended by S.H. Raza and MF Hussain who are two major artists.[23]

Career[]

Ram Kumar painted abstract landscapes, usually in oil or acrylic.[24] He was also associated with the Progressive artists' group.[25]

Ram Kumar has participated in various exhibitions in and out of India, including the 1958 Venice Biennale[26] and the Festival of India shows in the then USSR and Japan in 1987 and 1988.[27] One of Ram Kumar's latest solo exhibitions was in 2008 in Delhi.[28] Ram Kumar also wrote in Hindi and eight collections of his works have been published, as well as two novels and a travelogue.[29]

The human condition is the main concern of the painter[30] manifested in his early works by the alienated individual within the city.[21] Later the city, specifically Varanasi with its dilapidated, crammed houses, conveys a sense of hopelessness.[31] Increasingly abstract works done in sweeping strokes of paint evoke both exultation of natural spaces and more recently an incipient violence within human habitation.[21]

As the interest in Indian art has grown, paintings by Ram Kumar are getting increasing recognition in the art market.[32]

Ram Kumar received the Padma Shri in 1972[33] and the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honour, in 2010.[34] Lal Bhi Udhaas Ho Sakta Hai (Even Red Can be Sad), a 2015 documentary feature directed by Amit Dutta and produced by the Government of India's Films Division charts the various works of Kumar.[35]

Personal life[]

Ram Kumar was also the older brother of the famous Hindi writer, Nirmal Verma and younger brother of Colonel, . He lived and worked in Delhi until his death in 2018.[36]

Awards and honours[]

  • John D. Rockefeller III Fellowship, New York, 1970[37]
  • Padmashree, Government of India, 1972
  • Premchand Puraskar, Government of Uttar Pradesh, 1972
  • Kalidas Samman, Government of Madhya Pradesh, 1986
  • Officers Arts et Letters, Government of France, 2003
  • Lifetime Achievement Award, Government of Delhi, 2010
  • Padma Bhushan, Government of India, 2010
  • Fellowship of the Lalit Kala Akademi, 2011[2]

References[]

  1. ^ India Who's who 1995-96, p. 273
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b "The fellowship of Shri Ram Kumar". Lalit Kala Akademi. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
  3. ^ "Padma Bhushan Awardees". Retrieved 25 March 2012.
  4. ^ "Lifetime Achievement Award". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 9 July 2012. Retrieved 28 March 2012.
  5. ^ "Bio Summary". Retrieved 25 March 2012.
  6. ^ "India Who's who". 1995.
  7. ^ Indian and Foreign Review. Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India). 24: 20. 1986. ISSN 0019-4379. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  8. ^ "Progressive artist's group". Retrieved 26 March 2012.
  9. ^ "Ram Kumar artistic intensity of an ascetic". Retrieved 26 March 2012.
  10. ^ "Portrait of an Artist". Outlook. Retrieved 28 March 2012.
  11. ^ "Biography". Retrieved 28 March 2012.
  12. ^ "ArtistInterview". Saffron Art. Retrieved 28 March 2012.
  13. ^ "Nirmal Verma Obituary". Rediff. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
  14. ^ Lal, Sham; Gagan Gill (1996). Ram Kumar: a journey within. Vadehra Art Gallery. p. 209. OCLC 36556291.
  15. ^ "Ram Kumar Interview". Saffron Art. Retrieved 28 March 2012.
  16. ^ Jump up to: a b "True Colours". The Indian Express. 19 December 2010. Retrieved 28 March 2012.
  17. ^ "Ram Kumar: Artistic Intensity of an Ascetic". Retrieved 28 March 2012.
  18. ^ "Oil Paintings from Bengal". Retrieved 30 March 2012.
  19. ^ "Ram Kumar a transition from figurative". Retrieved 30 March 2012.
  20. ^ "Artist Profile". The Art Trust. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
  21. ^ Jump up to: a b c Treves, Toby (2006). Indian art: the moderns revisited, Volume 1. Vadehra Art Gallery. p. 42. ISBN 978-81-87737-19-3.
  22. ^ "Artistic intensity of an ascetic". Retrieved 1 April 2012.
  23. ^ Kapur, Geeta (1978). Contemporary Indian artists. Vikas. p. 49. ISBN 978-0-7069-0527-4.
  24. ^ Chawla, Rupika (1995). Surface and depth: Indian artists at work. Viking. p. 105. ISBN 978-0-670-86174-3.
  25. ^ "Progressive artist's group". Retrieved 25 March 2012.
  26. ^ Jachec, Nancy (2008). Politics and painting at the Venice Biennale, 1948–64: Italy and the idea of Europe. Manchester University Press. p. 175. ISBN 978-0-7190-6896-6.
  27. ^ Vishwambara, K. S. (1998). Movement in Indian art, a tribute. Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath. p. 91. OCLC 62857926.
  28. ^ "A colourful friendship". The Indian Express. 18 January 2008. Retrieved 26 September 2009.
  29. ^ Kumar, Ram (2004). The face & other stories. Vadehra Art Gallery. p. 16. ISBN 978-81-87737-06-3.
  30. ^ Lal, Sham (2003). Indian realities in bits and pieces. Rupa & Co. p. 513. ISBN 978-81-291-0247-8.
  31. ^ "Breadth of lifescapes". The Hindu. 7 July 2002. Retrieved 26 September 2009.
  32. ^ "Second knock". Lucknow Newsline. Indian Express Group. 24 September 2005. Retrieved 26 September 2009.
  33. ^ "Search Awardees". My India, My Pride. National Informatics Centre. Retrieved 26 September 2009.
  34. ^ "Doctors and artists in Delhi's Padma gallery". The Times of India. 26 January 2010. Archived from the original on 11 August 2011. Retrieved 11 April 2010.
  35. ^ "Even Red Can be Sad | Films Division". filmsdivision.org. Retrieved 30 May 2021.
  36. ^ http://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/art-and-culture/ram-kumar-1924-2018-in-memoriam/
  37. ^ Kumar "Artist Bio" Check |url= value (help). Retrieved 29 March 2012.

External links[]

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