Born in a poor carpenter family, on a wintry February day in 1925, in village Gondur, distt. Dhulia of Maharashtra, Ram Vanji Sutar was endowed with all the qualities of a blessed child. In a childhood beset with hard struggle, the talent of this budding artist shone and  was noticed by his guruji Shri Shriram Krishna Joshi, who encouraged him to join the Sir J.J. School of Art in Bombay. The inborn talent flourished, and Ram was always first class first, bagging at the end of his course, the prestigious Mayo Gold medal for modelling. This great sculptor now in his seventies, speaks with gratefulness of his teachers under whose keen guidance he developed his drawing and clay modelling skills. Ram has mastery over stone and marble sculpting, but he delights in casting bronze and many of his most famous works are in bronze.

As a modeler for the Department of Archaeology in 1950's he was involved with the painstaking restoration work of the sculptures in the Ellora and Ajanta caves where he's credited for restoring a number of sculptures. In 1952 he got married to Pramila and his only son Anil was born in 1957. In the late '50's, he was with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting as the Technical Assistant in the Audio-visual publicity Div. of Exhibition, but by end '50's he turned freelance with his two sculptures for the main gate of the Agricultural Fair.

Thus began the glorious career of this soft-spoken unassuming artist. Ram's forte is the excellent mastery he enjoys over the proportion and detail in the execution of monumental works. his first triumph was the Chambal Symbolic monument at the GandhiSagar Dam. This 45 feet high gigantic beauty carved out of a single block depicts mother Chambal with her two children- Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan symbolizing the brotherhood of the two states. Jawaharlal Nehru the Prime Minister was so impressed with this magnificent work that he asked Ram to do a similar 50 feet high monument in bronze for the Bhakra Dam to commemorate the workers who laid down their lives in the fulfilment of this stupendous engineering marvel of modern India. His model on the theme of Triumph of Labour for this monument still lies, awaiting realization  due to paucity of funds.

His heroic size bust of Mahatma Gandhi is one of his well known creations and copies of it have been presented by the Govt. of India to foreign countries like Russia, England, Malaysia France, Italy, Argentina, Barbados and Caracas on the occasion of Gandhi Centenary Celebrations. A similar double heroic size bust made for International Trade Fair Asia '72 is erected as a permanent feature at Pragati Maidan in Delhi. Under his dextrous hands several eminent leaders of India were immortalized in bronze and many of these adorn the Parliament and other important Govt. buildings and public sites in different cities.The statue of Govind Ballabh Pant overlooking Rafi Marg in New Delhi, a 10 feet high bronze creation, is a testimony to Mr. Ram Sutar's creative genius and displays his marvellous skill and flawless execution. The same is again exemplified by the brilliant depiction of Godess Ganga  and Yamuna at the Rose Garden, Ludhiana and Mandi Gobindgarh in Punjab. He created more than fifty monumental sculptures in the last forty years of his productive career.

Many awards and honours were bestowed on Mr. Sutar in recognition of his phenomenal achievements, but the Padamshree conferred on him in 1999, is eloquent for them all and for his eminence as well. His long cherished dream of  a unique monument befitting of the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi however, still awaits fulfilment. His workshop in Delhi is no less than a museum of it's own kind, with huge plaster of paris casts of eminent personalities as well as small pre approval models abounding the place, giving the impression of somehow broken the barriers of historical times and converging under one roof in various sizes. However, many of his creations are scattered all over India and the world or erected in inaccessible places like the parliament, and therefore could not be enjoyed by people at large. Anil Sutar, his gifted architect son struck upon the idea of showcasing them all together. He conceived and landscaped a sprawling sculpture garden, called Anand Van a unique concept in India, located on the Surajkund-Batkal lake road, where gigantic white fibreglass replicas of Mr. Ram Sutar's creations are displayed against the emerald green, rock studded lawns and the endless skyline. This aptly named visual treat for crowd sore eyes is a befitting gallery for this great artist.

Indian Art Circle.com is proud to host the official web page of Mr. Ram V. Sutar and wishes him several more creative achievements.