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Lot Essay
Jagdish Swaminathan was an eclectic and enigmatic artist, ideologue and cultural reformer. Distinct from the cultural milieu of Bombay and the Progressive Artists' Group, Swaminathan’s persona, lifestyle and practice were largely based on his belief that art is a form of purity that is at once primal, spiritual and mystical. Swaminathan is remembered as a member of the Communist Party of India, a founding member of Group 1890, the creator of the short-lived and controversial journal Contra, a leading advocate for reform at the Lalit Kala Akademi, and the founder of Bharat Bhavan, an interdisciplinary arts center in Bhopal in the 1980s. These activities kept the artist very much at the forefront of developments in modern Indian art throughout his lifetime.
Painted in the 1990s, the present lot centers on two vibrant red triangular forms, a recurring motif in Swaminathan's work. Dominating the composition, these forms function simultaneously as mountains, symbols and abstract fields of color, resisting any single interpretation. The palette is dominated by earthy browns, muted neutral tones and deep blues, punctuated by brilliant passages of red and yellow. Fluid markings resembling calligraphy or hieroglyphs animate the surface and reveal the artist's hand. Despite the seemingly anarchic arrangement of spots, strokes and swirling forms, the composition remains carefully structured, organized around a clear geometric framework. With the rectangular borders framing the mountain-like forms at its center, the painting recalls Swaminathan's celebrated Bird, Mountain, Tree series of paintings from the preceding decades.
The artist’s use of geometric forms was informed in part by yantras, the sacred geometric diagrams employed in meditation and prayer. In his words, “The triangle and the rectangle and the circle as colour, I find, are windows on the Avyaktam, the unmanifested” (J. Swaminathan, ‘Color Geometry’, Lalit Kala Contemporary, no. 40, New Delhi, 1995, p. 21). Like many neo-Tantric artists including Gulam Rasool Santosh and Biren De, Swaminathan was drawn to the symbolic and meditative potential of yantras. Yet while neo-Tantric abstraction often relies on bold color and sharply defined geometry, Swaminathan's earthy palette and fluid forms reveal another equally important influence: indigenous artistic traditions. A passionate advocate for tribal and folk art, he argued that rural and tribal artists should be recognized as contemporary practitioners and collaborators rather than marginalized custodians of tradition. As he wrote, “Respecting the innate creative genius of the Adivasi people, just as we respect our own, we are seeing them as living in a commonality with us. We see our fates inexorably linked together, and the new artistic ethos can only be born if this commonality is realized” (Artist statement, The Perceiving Fingers, Bhopal, 1987, p. 38).
Swaminathan's engagement with indigenous visual traditions had a profound impact not only on his thinking but also on his artistic process. As Vidya Dehejia notes, “He worked with palette knife, rags, and roller, and used a sharp object to furrow deep into the thick paint surface. In addition, Swaminathan often applied paint with his hand, his essential ‘tool,’ just as the tribals did; he felt that his fingers could ‘discover and cover, reveal and mold better than any conventional implement.’” Paintings such as the present lot were “created to question the validity of the distinctions so often made between urban art and folk art and between art and craft” (V. Dehejia, ‘Text Decoded’, Beyond the Legacy, Washington, 1998, p. 202).
Swaminathan's counter-cultural approach is evident in his artistic practice. Divided into distinct phases, his oeuvre bears the influence of surrealism, free association and symbolism. During the final years of his life, following his return to Madhya Pradesh, the artist revisited a more symbolic visual language inspired once again by the indigenous artistic traditions of central India. While maintaining the simplicity and careful balance that characterize his mature works, he continued to innovate, incorporating natural materials such as wax, sand and mud and increasingly using his fingers to apply pigment. Painted during this late phase, the present lot exemplifies Swaminathan's effort to dissolve distinctions between modern and indigenous art, creating a visual language that is at once symbolic, spiritual and deeply personal.
Painted in the 1990s, the present lot centers on two vibrant red triangular forms, a recurring motif in Swaminathan's work. Dominating the composition, these forms function simultaneously as mountains, symbols and abstract fields of color, resisting any single interpretation. The palette is dominated by earthy browns, muted neutral tones and deep blues, punctuated by brilliant passages of red and yellow. Fluid markings resembling calligraphy or hieroglyphs animate the surface and reveal the artist's hand. Despite the seemingly anarchic arrangement of spots, strokes and swirling forms, the composition remains carefully structured, organized around a clear geometric framework. With the rectangular borders framing the mountain-like forms at its center, the painting recalls Swaminathan's celebrated Bird, Mountain, Tree series of paintings from the preceding decades.
The artist’s use of geometric forms was informed in part by yantras, the sacred geometric diagrams employed in meditation and prayer. In his words, “The triangle and the rectangle and the circle as colour, I find, are windows on the Avyaktam, the unmanifested” (J. Swaminathan, ‘Color Geometry’, Lalit Kala Contemporary, no. 40, New Delhi, 1995, p. 21). Like many neo-Tantric artists including Gulam Rasool Santosh and Biren De, Swaminathan was drawn to the symbolic and meditative potential of yantras. Yet while neo-Tantric abstraction often relies on bold color and sharply defined geometry, Swaminathan's earthy palette and fluid forms reveal another equally important influence: indigenous artistic traditions. A passionate advocate for tribal and folk art, he argued that rural and tribal artists should be recognized as contemporary practitioners and collaborators rather than marginalized custodians of tradition. As he wrote, “Respecting the innate creative genius of the Adivasi people, just as we respect our own, we are seeing them as living in a commonality with us. We see our fates inexorably linked together, and the new artistic ethos can only be born if this commonality is realized” (Artist statement, The Perceiving Fingers, Bhopal, 1987, p. 38).
Swaminathan's engagement with indigenous visual traditions had a profound impact not only on his thinking but also on his artistic process. As Vidya Dehejia notes, “He worked with palette knife, rags, and roller, and used a sharp object to furrow deep into the thick paint surface. In addition, Swaminathan often applied paint with his hand, his essential ‘tool,’ just as the tribals did; he felt that his fingers could ‘discover and cover, reveal and mold better than any conventional implement.’” Paintings such as the present lot were “created to question the validity of the distinctions so often made between urban art and folk art and between art and craft” (V. Dehejia, ‘Text Decoded’, Beyond the Legacy, Washington, 1998, p. 202).
Swaminathan's counter-cultural approach is evident in his artistic practice. Divided into distinct phases, his oeuvre bears the influence of surrealism, free association and symbolism. During the final years of his life, following his return to Madhya Pradesh, the artist revisited a more symbolic visual language inspired once again by the indigenous artistic traditions of central India. While maintaining the simplicity and careful balance that characterize his mature works, he continued to innovate, incorporating natural materials such as wax, sand and mud and increasingly using his fingers to apply pigment. Painted during this late phase, the present lot exemplifies Swaminathan's effort to dissolve distinctions between modern and indigenous art, creating a visual language that is at once symbolic, spiritual and deeply personal.