Ram Kumar (born 1924 in Shimla, Himanchal Pradesh, India – Died 2018 in New Delhi, India).
Ram Kumar’s work was often challenging to place within the more simplistic narratives that developed around modern Indian art. Like several Indian and Pakistani artists who studied in Paris in the 1950s, Kumar returned from Europe with a semi-figurative style that drew on post-cubism. He eventually chose to abandon the figure entirely and work almost exclusively with the motifs of abstract cityscapes and landscapes, a move unique among his immediate contemporaries. By insisting on the abstract, Kumar demanded something that most of his peers did not; a private, contemplative viewing experience. Like their counterparts in Western abstract art – the work of Rothko and Hans Hoffman come to mind – Kumar’s paintings are less about transcendence and more about the visual encounter between the viewer and the artwork in front of them. Thus, the evolution in Kumar’s work that set him apart from his contemporaries can be understood as the embodiment of a break between picturing something and being it.