In the present lot from his Bird, Mountain, Tree series, Jagdish Swaminathan creates movement using a broad ribbon of yellow trailing a bird which soars above a mountain. Speaking of his ability to create fantastical works, the artist Krishen Khanna wrote, “His structures were elemental, uniquely his own. He conjugated them to create undreamt of images. Hills, birds, insects, plants, water, air, unbuildable buildings but no human beings. Their... In the present lot from his Bird, Mountain, Tree series, Jagdish Swaminathan creates movement using a broad ribbon of yellow trailing a bird which soars above a mountain. Speaking of his ability to create fantastical works, the artist Krishen Khanna wrote, “His structures were elemental, uniquely his own. He conjugated them to create undreamt of images. Hills, birds, insects, plants, water, air, unbuildable buildings but no human beings. Their relationship on the canvas had nothing to do with the laws of this physical world. The arena of painting was its own unique universe in which the impossible is credible. A rock suspended in mid air with a sleek bird atop of it, a mountain reflected in a lake which leaves you guessing as to which is which, and steps on a monument leading nowhere. The entire drama enacted in the richest most unusual colours.” (Krishen Khanna, J. Swaminathan, New Delhi: Lalit Kala Akademi, 1995)

Colour is an important element in Swaminathan’s oeuvre. The deep red and bright yellow draws from the impassioned colour palette of Pahari miniatures. Although his pictorial language shies away from directly referencing them, the yellow border enclosing the image recalls the composition of traditional Indian miniatures. Art critic Geeta Kapur asserts the importance of Pahari paintings to Swaminathan’s work, “The rarified atmosphere in his paintings, the rainbow colours, flowering shrubs and gleaming birds, all resemble the Pahari pictures. He has learnt from the miniaturists that in order for a thing in nature to serve as metaphor, it must have a form so finely spun with the skeins of poetry and so compact that it cannot be analyzed into parts. Also, that the metaphoric image must have a certain glamour so that it can serve the purpose of pictorial ornamentation.” (“J. Swaminathan: Wings of a Metaphor”, Geeta Kapur, Contemporary Indian Artists, New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd., 1978, p. 207)

Swaminathan’s works are defined by nature. He pays homage to them in this series-the only of his creative phases where they are directly represented-with the various recurring motifs standing “for man’s wonder at the marvels of nature. Swami’s approach to the world around him has both the innocence and the depth of approach of the child. He succeeds in this sense of wonder transmitting through his paintings to the spectator. We become more aware, and therefore more alive, to the world around us.” (V V Prasad, “Plumed Bird and Barren Rocks”, Prayag Shukla and Shruti Lakhanpal Tandon eds., The Era of Jagdish Swaminathan, New Delhi: Dhoomimal Gallery, 2024, p. 404)

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