Important Notice

Jagdish 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,... Jagdish 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.

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