Ram Kumar valuation
Indian painter and Hindi writer whose early scenes of city life gave way to abstract landscapes after his visits to Varanasi.
Ram Kumar (1924–2018) was born in Shimla.
What a work by Ram Kumar is worth
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Bio
Ram Kumar (1924–2018) was born in Shimla. He studied economics at St Stephen's College in Delhi and took evening classes at the Sarada Ukil School of Art, and after a short spell as a banker he turned to painting. From 1949 to 1952 he studied in Paris under André Lhote and Fernand Léger. He was associated with the Progressive Artists' Group and was a close friend of S.H. Raza. His early paintings showed bleak city dwellers and the alienation of urban life. After a visit to Varanasi with M.F. Husain in 1960, the figures gave way to the city's dilapidated buildings and then to abstract landscapes in blues, reds, ochres and blacks. He showed at the Tokyo Biennale in 1957 and 1959, the Venice Biennale in 1958 and the São Paulo Biennial in 1961, 1965 and 1980, and the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi held a retrospective of his work in 1993. He received the Padma Shri in 1972 and the Padma Bhushan in 2010, and wrote short stories, novels and a travel book in Hindi. He lived and worked in New Delhi.
He painted in oil on canvas and also made works on paper, some in ink and gouache and others in acrylic and ink. Paper fades and discolours in strong light and can stain or turn brittle with age, so check the condition of a sheet and its mount. Keep any gallery invoice and any exhibition labels on the back, and note the date of the work.
At a glance
- Born
- 23 September 1924, Shimla
- Died
- 14 April 2018
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