Jagdish Swaminathan (India, 1928 -1994)


Untitled Oil on canvas92 x 84cm (36 1/4 x 33 1/16in).
|Provenance:Private Collection, Dubai;Saffron Art, Summer Auction 2008, 18-19 June 2008, Lot 104.Jagdish Swaminathan contributed to the arts as an art critic and lecturer before he decided to become a full-time artist. He founded 'Group 1890' in 1962 which was a short lived but highly influential art movement that did not advocate a specific aesthetic and was a rebellion against both the Bombay Progressives and the Bengal School of Art.Swaminathan's earlier works were primarily figurative drawings and paintings. He began making abstract paintings which juxtaposed simplistic motifs of mountains, trees, rocks and birds against flat geometric planes of color. This new series was inspired by the formal qualities of miniature paintings and incorporated symbolism from folk and tribal painting. Besides his experimentation with tribal motifs, he rigorously evolved texture in his paintings. 'Commonly referred to as the Bird and Mountain series, the paintings are luminous and induce a meditative calm. They are suggestive, open to interpretation: as an expression of the self's unity with nature, they can be seen as a visual equivalent to the transcendental principle expounded in the Upanishads.' (A. Jhaveri, A Guide to 101 Modern and Contemporary Indian Artists, Mumbai 2005, p. 93)The present lot is a unique work from the artists most coveted series. Whilst it subtlety lies in the use of earthen colours and delicate rendering of the birds and rocks, it also stands out due to the granular texture and thin application of oil paint on canvas. Overall, this painting exudes a warm, emotive and calming energy, and is a beautiful marriage between the traditional and the contemporary. 'Culture and nature. Both are sufficient unto themselves and yet they cannot exist without being in a relationship. That is the way I see the link between my work in different phases. It is not a dialectical relationship, it is not a continuity..I don't really know how to express it.'(N. Tulli, The Flames Mosaic, Indian Contemporary painting, p. 401)