Swaminathan is not concerned with the `phenomenal world` of physical reality. His stark imagery, while seemingly maintaining
a link with the world of nature, actually embodies a visionary, even spiritual, inflection. Yet his work is an attempt to
express, not so much the subconscious or imaginative realms, as the fundamental structures of existence. Swaminathan draws
inspiration from the vivid, contrasting colors and...
Swaminathan is not concerned with the `phenomenal world` of physical reality. His stark imagery, while seemingly maintaining
a link with the world of nature, actually embodies a visionary, even spiritual, inflection. Yet his work is an attempt to
express, not so much the subconscious or imaginative realms, as the fundamental structures of existence. Swaminathan draws
inspiration from the vivid, contrasting colors and simplicity of figuration found in the Indian tribal and folk art
traditions.
"His structures were elemental, uniquely his own. He conjugated them to create undreamt of images. Hills, birds, insects,
plants, water, air, unbuildable buildings but no human beings. Their relationship on the canvas had nothing to do with the
laws of the physical world. The arena of painting was its own unique universe in which the impossible is credible." (p. 2,
Krishen Khanna, J. Swaminathan, Contemporary Indian Art Series, Lalit Kala Akademi, 1995)