“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.” - JAGDISH SWAMINATHAN

The 1960s were a decade of considerable stylistic experimentation for Jagdish Swaminathan. His trailblazing formal investigations were driven by a thorough rejection of Western art styles and the revivalism of the Bengal School. They led him to an early exploration of tribal... “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.” - JAGDISH SWAMINATHAN

The 1960s were a decade of considerable stylistic experimentation for Jagdish Swaminathan. His trailblazing formal investigations were driven by a thorough rejection of Western art styles and the revivalism of the Bengal School. They led him to an early exploration of tribal motifs that evolved into his Colour Geometry of Space series which treated colour as form. His works beginning from 1968-marked by repeated use of bird, mountain and tree motifs-form the Bird, Mountain, Tree series, which remains one of the most celebrated periods of his career.

Nature is a logical choice of subject for Swaminathan who used to painstakingly capture the play of sunlight on the hills around Shimla at all hours of the day as a child. Geeta Kapur asserts that the artist based his work on the Upanishadic theory of transcendence which it defines as the ultimate bliss experienced primarily through the atman or Self. Swaminathan chases this aesthetic satisfaction with a study of nature, which acts as an “an interface between atman and Brahman.” (“J. Swaminathan: Wings of a Metaphor”, Geeta Kapur, Contemporary Indian Artists, New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd., 1978, p. 203) The iridescent purple boulders dominating the present lot were inspired by rock formations he came across in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Critic K B Goel noted how the series “became actually diagrams of his own relationship with mountains. These had necessarily an abstract format because these were private images, images that were the result of meditations…” (K B Goel quoted in “KB Goel: The Critic in his Labyrinth”, The Patriot, 10 January 2019, online)

As space is “the occasion for cosmic manifestation” (Kapur, p. 204), it is a crucial element in Swaminathan’s works. He apportions the canvas in the present lot using a concept of space derived from Tantra, Indian miniatures and classical Indian art. Goel also identified the influence of Chinese theories of landscape-making in Swaminathan’s works; he centred his composition around the area of the canvas where the human eye would naturally rest. The mountains bisect the canvas horizontally by throwing their reflections onto an undisturbed surface. A peacock surveys the landscape from its floating rocky perch in the flat green sky. Despite the picture space being cut by a rectangular brown colour field just to its right, the work exudes a sense of vastness. For Kapur, Swaminathan’s decision to include a winged creature in his assembly of motifs from this period heightens the expansive quality of his works. She explains, “...it is not arbitrary that Swaminathan should have chosen the image of the bird as his recurring motif. The bird belongs to the element of space; it is the winged metaphor to suggest the infinitude of space.” (Kapur, p. 204)

The mountains and bird do not function as faithful representations. Placed in a richly coloured landscape and divorced from the laws of the physical world, they accrue psycho-symbolic connotations. The birds, mountains and trees from the series then become potent vehicles for metaphor. Jagdish Swaminathan believed in the importance of defamiliarization of a known form so it “expresses a spiritual sentiment about the unrealized universe.” (Kapur, p. 201)

Swaminathan put forth the theory of art in which he founded his Bird, Mountain, Tree series in an interview with writer and art critic Prayag Shukla. In his words, “Art is a mirror which nature cannot use to see its own true reflection... Art frees the symbols/images from nature (from their original natural associations). Essentially, no symbol represents anything specific; rather, it has endless possibilities… to perceive or maintain something in a realistic manner, is to strip it of its significance or deeper meaning. And we will agree that where this happens, there is no art. It cannot be.” (The artist in “A Human Addressing Another: Conversation with Prayag Shukla”, Prayag Shukla and Shruti Lakhanpal Tandon eds., The Era of Jagdish Swaminathan, New Delhi: Dhoomimal Gallery, 2024, p. 235)

The painting bears a Kunika Chemould Art Centre label at the back. Roshen Alkazi championed Swaminathan’s art as the director of Kunika Chemoud and often exhibited his work there. Speaking of works shown at an exhibition in 1966, art critic Richard Bartholomew wrote, “To me… they are Swaminathan, in one cycle of his being, of his being a painter… These are paintings in which Swaminathan’s concentration on and control over the elements of colour and design have affected a transformation. What is communicated is the belief in the transformation, the belief that matter - subject matter, chromatic matter - has become a kind of energy.” (“The Swaminathan Cycle” Richard Bartholomew, The Art Critic, Noida: BART, 2012, p. 439)

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