Emerging in the late 1960s, the Bird, Mountain, Tree series-of which the present lot is an exemplar-remains one of Jagdish Swaminathan’s most accomplished bodies of work. Spanning over two decades, the series centres on the arrangement of three titular motifs set against luminous colour fields. Though recognisable as forms drawn from nature and indigenous symbolism, these motifs are stripped of their material associations and transformed into... Emerging in the late 1960s, the Bird, Mountain, Tree series-of which the present lot is an exemplar-remains one of Jagdish Swaminathan’s most accomplished bodies of work. Spanning over two decades, the series centres on the arrangement of three titular motifs set against luminous colour fields. Though recognisable as forms drawn from nature and indigenous symbolism, these motifs are stripped of their material associations and transformed into idealised, metaphysical presences through shifts in scale, perspective, and spatial logic. As critic Geeta Kapur observed, Swaminathan “selects images from nature, but dematerializes them by making them metaphorical,” using them to evoke “a spiritual sentiment about the unrealized universe.” (Geeta Kapur, “J. Swaminathan Wings of a Metaphor”, Contemporary Indian Artists, New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd., 1978, p. 201)

The philosophical concerns underlying this series were central to Swaminathan’s larger artistic outlook. A fiercely independent artist, writer, poet, and political activist, he challenged conventional understandings of Indian modernism by rejecting both Western-oriented modernist frameworks and the “pastoral idealism of the Bengal School”. (Group 1890 Manifesto, Transits of a Wholetimer J Swaminathan: Years 1950-69, New Delhi: Gallery Espace, 2012, p. 70) For Swaminathan, modern art was not intended to reproduce reality in an objective or naturalistic manner. Instead, he believed that painting should communicate a mysterious and poetic sensibility rather than narrative or didactic meaning. As Amrita Jhaveri explains, Swaminathan’s search for an authentic expression of modern Indian art led him to advocate for a continuity between folk, tribal, and urban contemporary traditions, while dissolving the divide between art and craft. He sought to redefine contemporary practice through the philosophical foundations of Indian art rather than through a purely Western encounter with modernism. (Amrita Jhaveri, A Guide to 101 Modern and Contemporary Indian Artists, Mumbai: India Book House Pvt. Ltd., 2005, p. 93).

Before arriving at the distilled imagery of the Bird, Mountain, Tree series, Swaminathan worked extensively with the symbolic visual language of folk and tribal art. Over time, these explorations evolved into compositions structured through geometric simplification and broad expanses of saturated colour. This enabled him to pursue a more essential mode of expression by constructing a highly personal pictorial universe that moved between abstraction and naturalism.

The present lot demonstrates many of the defining characteristics of this mature phase. The composition borrows formal elements from Pahari and Kangra miniatures, visible in its flattened perspective, intricate detailing, and warm palette. Like those miniature traditions, the image is horizontally divided and enclosed within broad borders. Swaminathan organises the canvas into vivid planes of red, yellow, and orange, revealing the sophisticated chromatic sensibility that Kapur described as being rooted in “Indian tradition which offers a vast variety of the subtlest most brilliant hues in its art forms.” (Kapur, p. 210).

The work’s powerful visual and psychological impact emerges through its treatment of space and form. The delicately rendered bird appears almost weightless against the more solid presence of the mountain, staircase, and tree, raising questions of fragility and permanence. Suspended above a rock, the bird suggests infinite space and transcendence, while the staircase, mountain, and tree may be interpreted as metaphors for spiritual ascent, enlightenment, knowledge, and immortality- qualities frequently associated with these forms in mythological traditions.

Yet Swaminathan resisted attaching singular meanings to these images. While Kapur interpreted such landscapes as meditations on maya and “the spiritual sentiment about the unrealized universe” (Kapur, pp. 203–204), their ambiguity remains essential to their meaning. As Jhaveri notes, the works are “suggestive, open to interpretation and may be understood as visual expressions of the unity between the self and nature, echoing transcendental ideas found within the Upanishads.” (Jhaveri, p. 93)

“The arena of painting was its own unique universe in which the impossible is credible. A rock suspended in mid-air with a sleek bird atop of it, a mountain reflected in a lake which leaves you guessing as to which is which, and steps on a monument leading nowhere. The entire drama enacted in the richest and most unusual colours.”

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