Untitled (Falling Bird)

"To trace Ram Kumar’s evolution as a painter is to map the course of contemporary Indian painting: in the spiritual crises he has undergone, the choices of style he has made, we see reflected the tensions of an unfolding post-colonial modernity, full of surprises and uncertainties. Ram Kumar has broken his pilgrimage at several way-stations of experiment." (R. Hoskote, ‘The Poet of the Visionary Landscape’, Ram Kumar: A Journey Within, New Delhi, 1996, p. 36)

The 1960s saw Ram Kumar moving almost abruptly from figuration to abstraction. In 1961, following a life-altering visit to the city of Benares (Varanasi), known for its veneration of the dead, the artist would forever abandon literal representation in his paintings. Kumar felt that the world of figuration could not express the existential elements at the heart of his creative impetus. "In Varanasi, where religion and corruption flourish interwoven, where the zones of faith and torment intersect, he found a potent symbol by which to denote human suffering under the tyranny of putrefying social customs [...] By banishing the figure from the kingdom of shadows, Ram Kumar was able to emphasize the nullification of humanity.” (R. Hoskote, ‘The Poet of the Visionary Landscape’, Ram Kumar: A Journey Within, New Delhi, 1996, p. 37)

Painted in 1968, Untitled (Falling Bird) represents a fleeting moment of figuration in a sea of abstraction. This monumental painting captures a rapturous energy conveyed through dynamism and loose gestural brushstrokes. Here, it seems as if the artist's melancholic impoverished sentinel figures of the 1950s have dissolved into a more fluid, expressive style.

In discussing the motivations behind Ram Kumar’s seismic shift towards his iconic abstract configurations, Richard Bartholomew states, “Towards the end of the 1960s Ram took stock of the entire situation, it appears […] he had come far, far away from the gaunt dramatic themes of his early paintings […] He then saw everything as an emanation of nature. But whilst he chose to release or reassemble the angular, mysterious forms, he also chose the multiple perspectives he had learnt to master.” (R. Bartholomew ‘The Abstract as a Pictorial Proposition’, Ram Kumar: A Journey Within, New Delhi, 1996, p. 30)

Here, the falling bird is a potent symbol for a loss of control, as this winged creature plummets to a seemingly unavoidable fate. There are comparisons to be made with fellow modern master, Tyeb Mehta, who won the gold medal in India’s first Trienale in the mid-1960s for his first image of a falling figure. During this pivotal period, both artists became consumed with the postcolonial fate of humanity and the existential dread that the new, urban India inspired. However, in the present painting, Kumar injects a sense of speed, urgency and potency into his falling bird, leaving the viewer uncertain whether it can recover and rise to its own salvation.