Ram Kumar Biography 
Ram Kumar is widely regarded as one of India's foremost abstract painters. He was also a writer and thus belongs to the rare Indian group of artist cum writer. He was associated with the Progressive artist's group. He was the first Indian artist to give up figurativism for abstract art. His work "The Vagabond" was one of the bestsellers of this artist. He has received J. D. Rockefeller III Fellowship, New York in the year 1970, Padmashree, Government of India - 1972, Padma Bhushan, Government of India - 2010 and Fellowship of the Lalit Kala Akademi, 2011. Premchand Puraskar for 1972, Kalidas Samman for 1986, Officers Arts et Letters, Government of France, 2003 and Lifetime Achievement Award, Government of Delhi, 2010 are other major honours received by this artist. He is the elder brother of the famous Hindi writer, Nirmal Verma. Verma was born in Shimla and currently he resides in Delhi.
Ram Kumar Verma was born in Shimla, HP in the year 1924. He was born in a large middle class family and had 8 siblings. His father was a government employee from Patiala who worked under British government. Kumar completed M.A. in Economics from St. Stephen's College, Delhi. His first exhibition was conducted in the year 1945 at Delhi while studying post-graduation. Later he learnt at Sharda Ukil School of Art under Sailoz Mukherjee. After post-graduation, he started his career as a bank employee; yet gave up his job to pursue a career in art.
Sailoz Mukherjee, a painter from Shantiniketan School introduced him to still life painting with live models. Later he went to Paris to learn under Andre Lhote and Fernand Leger. He was befriended by S.H. Raza and MF Hussain during his life in Paris. He has also participated in several exhibitions and competitions.
Published: N/A
Updated: January 08, 2014
