Having bagged the Padma Shri in 1971, Ram Kumar has no wish to seduce the eye that makes so much of abstract art slide into the sensational or the decorative. The Spartan streak in his mental make-up will not permit any such indulgence.

The sense of quiet that pervades his work invites contemplation and not a gaze. Born in Simla in 1924, Kumar belongs to the first generation of post-colonial Indian artists and stands next to F. N. Souza and M.F Husain.Â

This exhibition of his recent works at the Grosvenor Vadehra Art Gallery (21 Ryder Street London) features a selection of landscapes, highlights including works from the Benares series, a most sacred Hindu city which Kumar first visited in the 1960s; “During my several visits to the city, my effort has been to fathom a little of its mysterious depths which I could interpret in my paintings”Â

Ram Kumar’s recent works are increasingly abstract and clearly paint strokes that evoke both exultation of natural spaces and more recently an incipient violence within human habitation.

Kumar’s earlier exhibitions

Kumar has exhibited at the International Biennales in Tokyo in 1957 and 1970, the Venice Biennale 1958 and in Sao Paulo in 1961, 1965 and 1972. He has also participated in the Festival of India shows in the then USSR and Japan in 1987 and 1988.