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“In my art the ‘form’ does not originate with a point.
That is there as if already in place.”
J SWAMINATHAN
PROPERTY OF A LADY, NEW DELHI
63
JAGDISH
SWAMINATHAN
(1928 ‒ 1994)
Untitled
Signed in Devnagari and signed and dated
'J. Swaminathan/ 91' (on the reverse)
1991
Oil on canvas
45.25 x 31.5 in (115.1 x 80.2 cm)
$ 62,500 ‒ 93,750
Rs 40,00,000 ‒ 60,00,000
J
agdish
Swaminathan’s
interest
in tribal art predates the
Bird,
Mountain and Tree
series for which
he is most widely known. Opposed to
the idealism of the Bengal School and
the mannerism of European Modernism,
Swaminathan’s concern was the creation
of truly Indian modern art. He believed
this could be achieved by going back
to the origins as traced through India’s
tribal traditions. From the beginning of
his career in the late 1950s, Swaminathan
experimented with totemic symbols from
early societies. Exploring his “natural bent
for the primeval” (Jagdish Swaminathan,
“The Cygan: An Auto‒bio note,”
Lalit Kala
Contemporary Number 40
, New Delhi:
Lalit Kala Akademi, March 1995, p. 13),
Swaminathan used ancient symbols to
reconnect modern Indian art with its
indigenous precursors. The present lot
combines the purity of geometric forms
such as the square and the triangle, with
earth colours which emulate tribal art,
to create visual imagery that is at once
ancient, modern, and entirely Indian.
Jagdish Swaminathan
© Jyoti Bhatt