Important Notice

“The mind moves through the object to the idea, and through the idea to the object. Thus, the work becomes concrete and abstract at the same time.” - JAGDISH SWAMINATHAN

Fiercely individualistic as an artist, Jagdish Swaminathan sought to redefine Indian modernism. He believed it was too preoccupied with the physical world, when, in his view, the true essence of painting lay in a mysterious sense of poetry rather than the narrative... “The mind moves through the object to the idea, and through the idea to the object. Thus, the work becomes concrete and abstract at the same time.” - JAGDISH SWAMINATHAN

Fiercely individualistic as an artist, Jagdish Swaminathan sought to redefine Indian modernism. He believed it was too preoccupied with the physical world, when, in his view, the true essence of painting lay in a mysterious sense of poetry rather than the narrative or didactic. Early in his practice, he explored the symbolic language of folk and tribal art before shifting towards pure geometric forms and vivid, flat expanses of colour-what he described as the “Colour Geometry of Space”. By 1968, his work evolved to incorporate elements of nature into conceptual landscapes, a progression that culminated in his celebrated Bird, Mountain, Tree series, to which the present lot belongs. Spanning over more than two decades, this series features variations on its three titular forms, exploring different relationships, colours, and configurations, each distinguished by subtle shifts and nuances.

These canvases were not literal depictions of birds, mountains, and trees, but a vehicle for the artist to interrogate concepts of truth and perception, which he believed could only be accessed through pure, meditative representations of nature. Free from their associations with the physical world, these figures are reimagined as idealised forms, their scale and perspective deliberately altered. Swaminathan also draws on the formal language of Pahari miniature painting, evident in the broad, saturated fields of colour and the simple bands framing the elements on either side of the composition. As he described it, “Here all rules of tonalities, of harmonies, of warm and cool colours, broke down. Thus primary colours could be used to achieve an inward growing, meditative space. The introduction of representational forms in the context of colour geometry gave birth to psycho-symbolic connotations. Thus 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, “Modern Indian Art: The Visible and The Possible”, Jagdish Swaminathan, Geeta Kapur, Gieve Patel et al, Lalit Kala Contemporary 40, New Delhi: Lalit Kala Akademi, 1995, p. 49)

Artist Krishen Khanna notes, “His structures were elemental, uniquely his own. He conjugated them to create undreamt images. Hills, birds, insects, plants, water, air, unbuildable buildings but no human beings… 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 and most unusual colours.” (Krishen Khanna, J Swaminathan: Contemporary Indian Art Series, New Delhi: Lalit Kala Akademi, 1995)

Critic Geeta Kapur describes these imagined landscapes as meditations on “the spiritual sentiment about the unrealized universe” and maya, the illusory nature of the material world. (Geeta Kapur, “J. Swaminathan Wings of a Metaphor”, Contemporary Indian Artists, New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd., 1978, pp. 203-204). Yet, Swaminathan himself never assigned a fixed meaning to these images. Instead, works like the present lot reflect his conviction that “a work of art is neither representational nor abstract, figurative or non-figurative. It is unique and sufficient unto itself, palpable in its reality and generating its own life.” (Jagdish Swaminathan, “Group 1890 Manifesto”, Transits of a Wholetimer J Swaminathan: Years 1950-69, New Delhi: Gallery Espace, 2012, p. 70)

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