Ram Kumar (b. 1924)

Over the course of the 1960s Ram Kumar's work veered towards pure abstraction and by the end of the decade the elements of his landscapes had been reduced to barely recognizable forms juxtaposed in shifting vertical and horizontal planes as seen in the present painting.

The artist, 'addressed himself to the formal aberrations of mismatched planes, jamming the horizontal perspective against top views inspired by site-mapping and aerial photography, and locking the muddy, impasto-built riverbank constructions into a Cubist geometrical analysis. Gradually, the architecture drained away from his canvasses: society itself passed from his concerns, until, during the late 1960’s, his paintings assumed the character of abstractionist hymns to nature.' (Ranjit Hoskote, Ram Kumar, Recent Works, Saffron & Pundole Art Gallery exhibition, May – July 2002, p. 6).