Osian's Auction Catalogue Indian Modern and Contemporary Art | March 2008

87 61 Ramkumar (b.1924) Mother and Child S/d in English ‘RAM 54’, l.r. Oil on paper, 1954 11.8 x 7.3 in (30.0 x 18.5 cm) INR 4,800,000 – 6,000,000 USD 120,000 – 150,000 62 Ramkumar (b.1924) Untitled S/d in English ‘Ramkumar 1999’ on verso Mixed media on paper, 1999 22.0 x 35.0 in (55.9 x 88.9 cm) INR 1,200,000 – 1,600,000 USD 30,000 – 40,000 63 Ramkumar (b.1924) Untitled S/d in English ‘Ram Kumar 83’ on verso Oil on canvas, 1983 24.0 x 34.0 in (61.0 x 86.4 cm) INR 8,400,000 – 10,000,000 USD 210,000 – 250,000 ‘ Currents swirl from your brush. The sun-wind tilts your frames so drifts of haystack and cloudstream can sweep away hillocks, ridges, emperor’s tombs. This is the storm that Turner saw, stirring slave ships in brine, milling the tribute of silver and spice to spindrift till the whorled cyclonic eye engulfed sun and sky and time within its glowering rim. We lurch downstream, churned by the tempest, our sail thrummed, funneled round its rigging. But you have rowed through floes, thwarted avalanches and cliff falls, left the feldspar ravines of despair behind. These are notations for a landscape that you will throw away once you’ve climbed into the hills, like Wittgenstein’s ladder.’ – Ranjit Hoskote rpt. in Ram Kumar Recent Works Vadehra Art Gallery ExC 2000.