PRESS RELEASE *
Ram Kumar
REFLECTIVE LANDSCAPES
Aicon Gallery, NY
April 20 – May 13, 2007
Opening reception, April 20, 6-9pm
Aicon Gallery is delighted to introduce an exhibition by the legendary Indian artist Ram Kumar. Rightly heralded as a founding father of Indian modern art, this is his first solo show in 5 years. This is the inaugural New York gallery show under our new banner; Aicon Gallery. Formerly Gallery ArtsIndia we recently expanded to open our third gallery; the largest contemporary Indian art gallery in London, England in March 2007.
Ram Kumar, now 83 years of age, studied painting as an art student under the infamous Andre Lhote in Paris and went on to join the Atelier Fernand Leger. Upon his return to India in the early 1950s he lived near the refugee camps at Karol Bagh in Delhi and was inspired by the life and emotions he saw there. He exhibited with The Progressive Artists' Group, a group that formed on the eve of India's independence from Britain in 1947. The founding members of this group included F.N. Souza, S.H. Raza and M.F. Husain and they rebelled against both the academic Western styles of British art that were being taught at the art schools and the revival of the folk art tradition. Instead they strove towards creating their own personal styles, and Kumar was an integral part of heralding a new modern and international energy within Indian art.
Mountain and city landscapes have consistently inspired Kumar's artistic output. After his pivotal journey to the holy city of Benares in 1960 he completed his transition from representational to abstract color field works. This exhibition at Aicon Gallery showcases his abstract landscapes from 2001 through to 2006. The paintings in this show reflect his visual approach to this subject matter. In them he introduces multiple perspectives on the same plane and this technique along with his distinctive stark, angular lines combine to create the sense of spatial depth and emotional intensity that distinguishes his work.
Ram Kumar currently lives and works in Delhi and his works are included in numerous Museum collections including the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, New Jersey. Retrospectives of his work have been organized in Kolkata, Mumbai, Bhopal and Delhi between 1980 and 1994 and he was awarded the Padma Shree by the Government of India in 1972, one of the highest civilian honors.
For more information please contact:
Priyanka Mathew, Gallery Director, priyanka@aicongallery.com 212-725-6092 x 204
About Aicon Gallery:
Aicon Gallery (ArtsIndia Contemporary), formerly Gallery ArtsIndia, showcases Indian modern and contemporary art. Beginning in 2000 as the first online gallery of Indian art based in the United States it now has three physical locations. The first gallery opened in New York in 2002, following in 2004 with its California gallery in Palo Alto and most recently opening its London gallery in March 2007. It has hosted many landmark exhibitions including "Ashta Nayak: Eight Founders of Indian Art" and has collaborated with museums, loaning works to Tate Britain, the San Francisco Asian Art Museum, the Peabody Essex Museum and the city of Lille in France.
For more information and visuals please contact:
Aicon Gallery, 206 5th Avenue, Fifth Floor, between 25th & 26th St.
T: (212) 725-6092; F: (212) 725-6096, newyork@aicongallery.com
www.aicongallery.com