Important Notice

Jagdish Swaminathan's art was informed by his profound interest in the folk and tribal art of Central India. Born in Simla in 1928, it was not until the 1950s that Swaminathan began to paint full-time. At this time he questioned, and rejected, the notion that Indian modernism developed from encounters with the West. In 1962 he, along with some others, formed Group 1890, which was vehemently opposed to both the idealism of the Bengal School and... Jagdish Swaminathan's art was informed by his profound interest in the folk and tribal art of Central India. Born in Simla in 1928, it was not until the 1950s that Swaminathan began to paint full-time. At this time he questioned, and rejected, the notion that Indian modernism developed from encounters with the West. In 1962 he, along with some others, formed Group 1890, which was vehemently opposed to both the idealism of the Bengal School and the mannerism of European Modernism. Instead, Swaminathan strove to find the roots of a truly Indian Modern art in the foundations of Indian art as traced through tribal traditions.

During this period, Swaminathan experimented with totemic symbols from early societies in a constant quest to simplify, to find the origins, to return to purity. Although his practice eventually segued into the Bird, Mountain and Tree series that he is well-known for, he returned to and refined his earlier obsession with tribal and folk arts in the 1980s, following his founding of the Roopanker Museum of Art at Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal at the invitation of the government of Madhya Pradesh. Exploring what he himself described as his "natural bent for the primeval" (J Swaminathan, "The Cygan: An Auto-bio note", Lalit Kala Contemporary 40, New Delhi: Lalit Kala Akademi, March 1995, p.13), the artist experimented with a 'primitive' system of communications, adopting ancient symbology as a tool to reconnect modern Indian art with its indigenous precursors.

Works from this later period of Swaminathan's life, such as the present lot, make real the artist's desire to establish a continuum between folk, tribal and modern art, and his belief that the philosophical underpinnings of Indian art have a place in contemporary art practice. The deliberately unstructured manner in which Swaminathan arranges his forms and symbols on the canvas echo the manner in which the same symbols were used in folk art. Swaminathan's work embodies the meaningful message that Modernism can incorporate a visual language that is at once ancient, modern, and entirely Indian.

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