Ram Kumar (b. 1924)

Ram Kumar: A Retrospective, Aicon Gallery, London, March 31--April 30, 2010 and Aicon Gallery, New York, November 23–December 18, 2010

Ashta Nayak: Eight Pioneers of Indian Art, Gallery ArtsIndia, New York, March 31–April 29, 2005 and Gallery ArtsIndia, Palo Alto, May 20--June 19, 2005

Gagan Gill, ed., Ram Kumar: A Journey Within, Delhi, 1996, p. 88 

Good overall condition. Faint yellow stain center left. Slight yellowing to varnish in a few areas of impasto along lower segment. Faint craquelure lines lower left and right. Faint craquelure in blues has recently been retouched to stabilize and reduce the visual impact of the lines. This painting has recently been cleaned. Impasto, especially in the cream areas, is much more textural than in catalouge illustration.
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“In the solitary silent mountains of Simla, I became familiar for the first t.mes with the name Kashi from the novels of Sarat Chandra when I was a small school boy. Somehow this fascinating, mysterious name was related to old age, widows, the river Ganga, and death. At that t.mes , I had never dreamt that it would become so significant to me both as an artist as well as a human being, that its shadow would linger for such a long t.mes .

“I had gone to [Benares] for the first t.mes [with MF Husain in in the early 1960s]. It was in the middle of winter. And I had reached the city late at night. The dimly lit lanes were deserted and gave an impression of a ghostly deserted city. Except for the occasional howl of stray dogs, all was quiet. I thought the city was inhabited only by the dead and their dead souls. It looked like a haunted place and still remains the same.

“The main purpose of coming to [Benares]was to make some sketches on the spot and feel its depth and intensity. I had to see and feel the city in terms of lines and forms with a new visual experience.

“Wandering along the ghats in a vast sea of humanity, I saw faces like masks bearing marks of suffering and pain, similar to the blocks, doors and windows jutting out of dilapidated old houses, palaces, temples, the labyrinths of the lanes and by-lanes of the old city, hundreds of boats—I almost saw a new world, very strange, yet very familiar, very much my own.

“Sitting on the steps of Manikarnika Ghat … I felt the disappearing boundary between life and death. The temples of death, the smoke rising from the funeral pyres, the wailing of the relatives of the dead, and the river Ganga flowing slowly without a sound—I could not remain a silent observer. And then the mysterious steps on every ghat emerged from the river leading upward to enter the dark labyrinths of the city which was submerged in the stark reality of daily life. The sacred Ganga in Varanasi is unique in the world. The city emerging at its bank has an overwhelming impact on people.

“Every sight was like a new composition, a life artistically organized to be interpreted in colors. It was not.mes rely 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 depth of an experience,” (Ram Kumar rpt. “Ram Kumar: A Journey Within”, Delhi, 1996, p. 89).