RAM KUMAR
Born 1924, in Simla
Atelier Fernand Leger and Andre Lhote, Paris (1949-52)
M.A. in Economics from St. Stephen's College, New Delhi (1946)
Evening Classes at the Sharada Ukil School, New Delhi (1945)
Ram Kumar, like many of his confreres among the first generation of post-colonial Indian artists - including such figures as F N Souza, M F Husain, Paritosh Sen, Jehangir Sabavala, Krishen Khanna, S H Raza and Akbar Padamsee - combined an internationalist desire with the need to belong emphatically to their homeland. In its internationalist mood, this generation looked to the early 20th-century modernisms of Paris, London and Vienna for inspiration; its need to belong prompted an interest in the construction of a viable "Indian" aesthetic that bore a dynamic relationship to an Indian identity. With Ram Kumar, this quest for an indigenist tenor has not meant a superficial inventory of "native" motifs offered as evidence of a static and essentialist Indian identity. Instead, he demonstrates that a painter can enact the innermost dramas of his culture while maintaining the individuality, even idiosyncrasy of his performance. - Excerpts from "Parts of a World: Reflections on the Art of Ram Kumar" by Ranjit Hoskote, 2002. Ram Kumar lives and works in New Delhi.
Select Solo Exhibitions
2008 Homage to Kekoo Gandhy, Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai
Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi
2007 Reflective Landscapes, Aicon Gallery, New York
You shall remain hidden, Gallery Espace, New Delhi
Materia Prima, Anant Art Gallery, New Delhi
2005 Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai
2002 Recent Works, IndoCenter, Chelsea, presented by Saffronart and Pundole Art Gallery;
Mumbai; New Delhi; San Fransico; New York
2000 Landscapes from New Zealand, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi
1999 Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai
1997 Arks Gallery, London
1996 Pages From a Sketch Book, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai
1994 Jehangir Art Gallery, organized by Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi
1993 Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi
1992 Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi
Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai
1991 Chitrakoot Gallery, Kolkata
1990 Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai
Center for Contemporary Art, New Delhi
Select Group Exhibitions
1995 Gallery Raku, Japan
1988 Three Indian Artists, Karachi, Pakistan
1987, 88 Festival of India shows in the then USSR and Japan
1987 Coups de Coeur, Geneva, Switzerland
1985 Artistes Indiens en France, Foundation Nationale des Arts Graphiques et Plastiques, Paris
1973 Indian Contemporary Painting, a traveling exhibition in the U.S. and Canada
1967 Joint exhibition with M.F. Husain in Delhi and Prague, Czechoslovakia
1957 Graham Gallery, New York
Gallery One, London
Awards and Fellowships
2003 Officers Arts et Letters, French Government
1985 Kalidas Samman by the Madya Pradesh State Govt
1975 Uttar Pradesh State Government for short stories in Hindi
1972 Padmashree from Indian Government for short stories
1970 JD Rockefeller fund fellowship
1959 Honorable Mention, Sao Paolo Biennale
1958 National Award, New Delhi
1956 National Award, New Delhi