Important Notice

In August 1962, Swaminathan founded the Group 1890, which outlined a manifesto denigrating the 'vulgar naturalism' and 'pastoral idealism' of the Bengal school and the 'hybrid mannerism' of European modernism. The Group created a forum and persuasion to see 'phenomena in their virginal state'. Swaminathan's rendering of this philosophy created '…an alternative pictorial space in dividing purely conceptual landscapes in bright colour fields on... In August 1962, Swaminathan founded the Group 1890, which outlined a manifesto denigrating the 'vulgar naturalism' and 'pastoral idealism' of the Bengal school and the 'hybrid mannerism' of European modernism. The Group created a forum and persuasion to see 'phenomena in their virginal state'. Swaminathan's rendering of this philosophy created '…an alternative pictorial space in dividing purely conceptual landscapes in bright colour fields on which appeared mountains, stretches of water trees, diagonally levitating stones with an archetypal bird form. Painted with captivating simplicity, his paintings explored the pictorial possibilities of his limited imagery which were emblematic of elements necessary for man's survival on earth and interpretatively the numerous permutations and combinations of the imagery and bright colours suggested the ascent of man's inner being leaving the gross and the sullied.' (Indian Contemporary Art Post- Independence, Edited by Yvette Kumar, Vadhera Art Gallery, 1997,p.298)

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