R. Siva Kumar is an internationally recognized art historian, critic, and curator, known for his pioneering research on early Indian modernism and the Santiniketan School. He has authored influential books, contributed to major reference projects such as Art Journal, Grove Art Online, and The Dictionary of Art (Oxford University Press), and curated landmark exhibitions including Santiniketan: The Making of a Contextual Modernism and The Last Harvest: Paintings of Rabindranath Tagore, as well as retrospectives of key modern Indian artists.