Before Kumar arrived at his abstract landscapes, his works were characterised by desolate figures that conveyed a sense of urban angst. Kumar was also acutely aware of the scar that the Partition had left on the country. Many of his colleagues at the Silpi Chakra in Delhi had been made refugees and a lot of his work of that time was influenced by that trauma.
In the early Fifties, Kumar left for Paris and studied painting under Andre Lhote and painter Fernand Leger in Paris between 1949-52; he carried his past with him, not forgetting his Indian roots or his commitment to the proletariat. He joined the Communist party and noteworthy radicals like poet Paul Eluard and Leger.

When he returned to India in the Sixties, his colleagues were happy to see that Paris had not changed Kumar. He was still as simple and reclusive as he used to be. Only, the prices of his canvases had shot up. “His canvases were soon fetching higher prices than others like Ara. Again, this turn of events for Kumar never affected our friendship,” says Gandhy.
Auctions have now pushed the price for Kumar’s early works to a crore but the artist remains unassuming. “The auctions are part of the game, it’s not a question of being happy or unhappy about the commercial approach,” he says. Gandhy is happy that Kumar has chosen Chemould to display his solo and to dedicate the show to him, “I am indeed honoured, and it proves that our friendship has stood the test of time.”