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“The mind moves through the object to the idea, and through the idea to the object. Thus, the work becomes concrete and abstract at the same time.” - JAGDISH SWAMINATHAN

Jagdish Swaminathan was immensely interested in the underlying symbolism of the folk and tribal art of Central India. He experimented with totemic symbols from early societies in a constant quest to simplify and find a unique artistic vocabulary that reconnected... “The mind moves through the object to the idea, and through the idea to the object. Thus, the work becomes concrete and abstract at the same time.” - JAGDISH SWAMINATHAN

Jagdish Swaminathan was immensely interested in the underlying symbolism of the folk and tribal art of Central India. He experimented with totemic symbols from early societies in a constant quest to simplify and find a unique artistic vocabulary that reconnected modern Indian art with its precursors. He rejected the idea that Indian modernism developed solely from encounters with the West, and turned inwards instead, looking to the nation's own folk and indigenous 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 this physical world... 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." (Krishen Khanna, J Swaminathan: Contemporary Indian Art Series, New Delhi: Lalit Kala Akademi, 1995, p. 2)

While Swaminathan created a rich body of paintings over his artistic career, he also worked on a limited selection of sculptural works. These rare sculptural works, including the present lot, hint at the same preoccupations with totemic symbols and abstractionism. Featuring a series of elementary animalistic figures perched atop totem pole like structures, they reflect his "natural bent for the primeval." (Jagdish Swaminathan, "The Cygan: An Auto-bio note," Lalit Kala Contemporary Number 40, New Delhi: Lalit Kala Akademi, March 1995, p. 13).

The present lot possibly served as the inspiration for Swaminathan's iconic Shaheen sculpture built in Bhopal's Iqbal Memorial Park. Perched atop a 40-foot high pillar, the sculpture depicts the skeleton of an eight-foot-long shaheen, an imaginary falcon-like bird referenced in the poetry of Muhammad Iqbal. Here is the line, referenced in Iqbal's poem Sitaron Ke Aage Jahaan Aur Bhi Hain:

Tu Shaheen Hai, Parwaz Hai Kaam Tera
Tere Samne Aasman Aur Bhi Hain

(You are an eagle, flight is your vocation:
You have other skies stretching out before you.)

With these sculptural works, as well as his extensive body of paintings, Swaminathan formulated a visual language that is at once ancient, modern, and entirely Indian.

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