Important Notice

Originally enrolled in medical college, Jagdish Swaminathan worked as a journalist, political activist and writer of children’s fiction before he turned to painting. His experiences in these fields, however, were not forgotten; as an artist, Swaminathan rebelled and organised against the romantic and bourgeois trends he saw in modern Indian art at the time. Describing Swaminathan’s unique polemic against modern painting in India, fellow artist... Originally enrolled in medical college, Jagdish Swaminathan worked as a journalist, political activist and writer of children’s fiction before he turned to painting. His experiences in these fields, however, were not forgotten; as an artist, Swaminathan rebelled and organised against the romantic and bourgeois trends he saw in modern Indian art at the time. Describing Swaminathan’s unique polemic against modern painting in India, fellow artist Krishen Khanna notes that he “…talked and wrote about the importance of the numenous image at a time when most artists were dealing with phenomena. He emphatically stated again and again that the obsession with the phenomenal world was Western and no matter how elegant and efficient its art, it was too self-evident and immersed in the practical day-to-day – nor did he think that the manner in which it was painted could retrieve it. By the very nature of its concerns it failed to gain access to the regions of mystery which were central to Art. He had little patience with narrative and didactic paintings no matter how well they were painted. For him they lacked the mysterious realms of poetry” (Krishen Khanna, J. Swaminathan, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, 1995, not paginated).

These ‘mysterious realms of poetry’ come alive in Swaminathan’s conceptual landscapes, like the present lot, from his Bird, Mountain and Tree series. Here, the artist attempts to represent nature in its most virginal and tranquil state – an oasis of calm in which the tribulations of day to day life may be forgotten and the true potential of the universe discovered. A deeply spiritual painter, Swaminathan believed that it was nature alone that could lead man out of the maze of worldly concerns. This composition, then, serves as a pictorial map, designed to uncloud viewers’ vision and lead them to discover the entirety of their existence. Drawing from the Pahari miniature tradition, Swaminathan’s clean composition, use of flat planes of colour and fine detailing in this work, all contribute to its simple and noble purpose.

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