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拍品专文
“The bird is there – constantly and faithfully – as a messenger and a message; as one’s redemption. And it sings hymns of awareness, coaxingly and persuasively, as a perforation in space releasing the all-enveloping presence. But the bird is not bird: It is also snake, tree and leaf, linking up and holding together spaces and pointing to more. And the mountain is also cloud, human torso and curtain, mischievously inviting to be parted to reveal the vistas beyond” (S. Navlakha, ‘Fleeting Images’, Exhibition of Paintings by J. Swaminathan, New Delhi, 1979, unpaginated).
Untitled (Bird, Tree and Mountain Series) epitomizes Jagdish Swaminathan’s fascination with developing a pure and true form of representation through art. Swaminathan was one of the founders of Group 1890, an artists’ collective established in 1962. As part of its manifesto, the Group rejected ideals of Western Modernism and the “vulgar naturalism and pastoral idealism of the Bengal School,” instead aspiring to “see phenomena in its virginal state” and reveal it to the viewer in the same way (Y. Kumar, ed., Indian Contemporary Art Post Independence, New Delhi, 1997, p. 298). Swaminathan carried these ideals forward for decades, arguing that traditional Indian painting was never intended to mirror naturalistic reality. Drawing inspiration from folk and tribal art forms, Pahari miniature painting and Indian mythology, he rejected Western conventions of naturalism in favor of a vision that was primal, symbolic and spiritual.
In this painting from 1979, Swaminathan uses color as a means of representing an introspective, universal reality. “To understand colour as harmony was to limit oneself to look at it as representation, be it in terms of nature association or representation. Geometric areas of colour in certain juxtapositions created infinity on a two dimensional plane [...] Here all the rules of tonalities, of harmonies, of warm and cool colour broke down. Thus primary colours could be used to achieve an inward growing, meditative space [...] The introduction of representational forms in the context of colour geometry gave birth to psycho-symbolic connotations. Thus a mountain, a tree, a flower, a bird, a stone were not just objects or parts of a landscape but were manifestations of the universal’’ (Artist statement, ‘Modern Indian Art: the Visible and The Possible’, Lalit Kala Contemporary 40, New Delhi, 1995, p. 49). Here, the vivid red and yellow that dominate the background pay tribute to the Basholi school of miniature painting that deeply influenced the artist. Apart from the stylistic or compositional uniqueness of Basholi paintings, it was their unusual, non-naturalistic use of color that had a profound impact on his work.
Breaking through the pink and red borders that frame and encapsulate the work, the viewer’s eyes are drawn up the stairs that are mountainous in their own right to a surreal undulating mountain range. Rising from behind these mountains, two birds appear to fly towards the sun set against a vibrant yellow sky. Swaminathan constructs a world that transcends time and space, inducing the meditative stillness that became the artist’s obsession. The new two-dimensional cosmos he creates is both meditative and metaphorical, and thus multidimensional in its impact. At the intersection of reality and illusion, naturalism and abstraction, this painting offers a path to tranquility and new self-awareness.
Through works like these, Swaminathan sought to unveil the duality of reality and illusion, questioning whether it was the physical world or his painted enchantment that is an illusion or maya. “Swaminathan treats images like the numen in nature – that is metaphorically, but in a sense where the metaphor is now detached from the material-mythical world, and lifted into the ethereal spheres of lyric art and poetry” (G. Kapur, Contemporary Indian Art, London, 1982, p. 7). The artist borrowed the term ‘numinous image’ from Philip Rawson to speak about a ‘para-natural’, magical and mysterious space that is not obvious but is inherent everywhere. The present composition is an almost reverential meditation on reality and illusion, which seeks to unveil the true forces of nature through art.
Untitled (Bird, Tree and Mountain Series) epitomizes Jagdish Swaminathan’s fascination with developing a pure and true form of representation through art. Swaminathan was one of the founders of Group 1890, an artists’ collective established in 1962. As part of its manifesto, the Group rejected ideals of Western Modernism and the “vulgar naturalism and pastoral idealism of the Bengal School,” instead aspiring to “see phenomena in its virginal state” and reveal it to the viewer in the same way (Y. Kumar, ed., Indian Contemporary Art Post Independence, New Delhi, 1997, p. 298). Swaminathan carried these ideals forward for decades, arguing that traditional Indian painting was never intended to mirror naturalistic reality. Drawing inspiration from folk and tribal art forms, Pahari miniature painting and Indian mythology, he rejected Western conventions of naturalism in favor of a vision that was primal, symbolic and spiritual.
In this painting from 1979, Swaminathan uses color as a means of representing an introspective, universal reality. “To understand colour as harmony was to limit oneself to look at it as representation, be it in terms of nature association or representation. Geometric areas of colour in certain juxtapositions created infinity on a two dimensional plane [...] Here all the rules of tonalities, of harmonies, of warm and cool colour broke down. Thus primary colours could be used to achieve an inward growing, meditative space [...] The introduction of representational forms in the context of colour geometry gave birth to psycho-symbolic connotations. Thus a mountain, a tree, a flower, a bird, a stone were not just objects or parts of a landscape but were manifestations of the universal’’ (Artist statement, ‘Modern Indian Art: the Visible and The Possible’, Lalit Kala Contemporary 40, New Delhi, 1995, p. 49). Here, the vivid red and yellow that dominate the background pay tribute to the Basholi school of miniature painting that deeply influenced the artist. Apart from the stylistic or compositional uniqueness of Basholi paintings, it was their unusual, non-naturalistic use of color that had a profound impact on his work.
Breaking through the pink and red borders that frame and encapsulate the work, the viewer’s eyes are drawn up the stairs that are mountainous in their own right to a surreal undulating mountain range. Rising from behind these mountains, two birds appear to fly towards the sun set against a vibrant yellow sky. Swaminathan constructs a world that transcends time and space, inducing the meditative stillness that became the artist’s obsession. The new two-dimensional cosmos he creates is both meditative and metaphorical, and thus multidimensional in its impact. At the intersection of reality and illusion, naturalism and abstraction, this painting offers a path to tranquility and new self-awareness.
Through works like these, Swaminathan sought to unveil the duality of reality and illusion, questioning whether it was the physical world or his painted enchantment that is an illusion or maya. “Swaminathan treats images like the numen in nature – that is metaphorically, but in a sense where the metaphor is now detached from the material-mythical world, and lifted into the ethereal spheres of lyric art and poetry” (G. Kapur, Contemporary Indian Art, London, 1982, p. 7). The artist borrowed the term ‘numinous image’ from Philip Rawson to speak about a ‘para-natural’, magical and mysterious space that is not obvious but is inherent everywhere. The present composition is an almost reverential meditation on reality and illusion, which seeks to unveil the true forces of nature through art.