Lot Essay
This work belongs to a group of paintings executed by the artist in the early 1990s as a special commission for the corporate headquarters of the Times of India Group.
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At the end of the 1980s, Jagdish Swaminathan's painting style underwent a decided shift, both in technique as well as sensibility. In the new works, "the surface of the canvas ceases to be a two-dimensional support system upon which is represented a world, whether abstract or figurative. The surface becomes an arena within which to act and from which the creative ace and material world arise. Invention gives way to surprise: the revelation contained in the act of painting." (K.B. Goel, 'The Other', J. Swaminathan, New Delhi, Vadehra Art Gallery, 1993.)
These new works draw upon various symbols and images that coalesce on his canvas. Individually, these could be "non descriptive, partially associated images" that may not be recognizable, when seen as a whole they take on a new and collective meaning. "Whatever specific context they may belong to, he uses images and icons of the past, that in a similar attempt at identification become evocative and remain so even at this point in time. Through their transformed context and relationships in his painting, they become one with traditional and contemporary, because they are born of a motivation that bridges the two in a continuum." (G. Kapur 'Reaching Out to the Past', Lalit Kala Contemporary 40, New Delhi, March 1995, p. 17.)
Geometric shapes are common in these works and they too take on symbolic significance. The triangle, circle and rectangle appear most frequently. For example, through a process of association, the triangle can mean several different yet related things. On first glance, its structure is similar to a mountain. If explored further in a representational context, the mountain symbolizes the abode of the Hindu god Shiva. The individual elements in his works take on a greater role and imbue the paintings with additional layers of meaning. They take on a totemic role "capable of exercising its magical eternal influence on those who come within its field of vision." (J. Swaminathan, 'The Cube and the Rectangle', op. cit., p. 23.)
Swaminathan's paintings draw "upon the collective assemblage of myths and symbols in folk, and other subterranean passages of culture that attempted to reach the unknown in a kind of blind intuitiveness. The borrowed image held a certain amount of intrinsic power; the rest he wished to infuse by the particular confluence of elements on the picture plane." (Geeta Kapur, ibid.)
PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE TIMES OF INDIA GROUP, INDIA
Jagdish Swaminathan (1928 - 1994)
Untitled
Details
Jagdish Swaminathan (1928 - 1994)
Untitled
Oil on canvas
57 3/8 x 89 1/8 in. (145.8 x 226.3 cm.)
Untitled
Oil on canvas
57 3/8 x 89 1/8 in. (145.8 x 226.3 cm.)