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Swaminathan became the first painter in India to be awarded the Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship
in 1968, and was also selected to be on the international jury at the São Paulo Biennial.
During this time, in the late 1960s, his style underwent a significant shift, strongly influenced
by Pahari miniatures. The relationship between colour and space took precedence – and
would remain an important aspect of his oeuvre – leading to a series titled ‘Colour Geometry
of Space,’ followed by the famous ‘Bird, Mountain, Tree’ series that the artist has become
known for. “He managed to dissociate common phenomena from its normal associations
and lodge it, as it were, in a universe of mystery and wonder, creating images which are
about to reveal themselves but never quite do so… To achieve this he invented a technique
which involved the application by rag of several colours simultaneously without the volatile
pigments running into each other creating grey areas. It was the association of pure and
quite often conflicting colours adjacent to each other which resonated. He would then paint
the surrounding area in a single colour which as often as not, was contrapuntal.” (Khanna)
In Swaminathan’s ‘space geometry’ paintings, simple geometric forms and shapes appeared
through a process of reduction, rendered in a soft, flat colour palette. The artist explained
that their recurrence in his work seemed to have a “symbolic significance. They appeared
clothed in certain more specific symbols like that of the snake, the sperm, the lotus and the
sign OM, reminiscent of ancient totems which had, not a ritualistic but a magical significance
for me.” (J Swaminathan, “Colour Geometry,” Swaminathan, Kapur, Patel et al, p. 21)
Swaminathan explored the ‘Bird Mountain Tree’ series for nearly two decades, featuring vivid
planes of colour and new combinations to present the three titular motifs. “What happens is
that when you see a recognisable object, and notice it time and again, then you come to ‘feel’
its repetition.” (Jagdish Swaminathan,
Art Etc. News and Views
, originally published in Hindi
in
Ravivar,
1979, online) His profound interest in the underlying symbolism of the folk and
tribal art of Central India drove him to simplify and seek origins in a desire to return to purity.
“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… 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.”
(Khanna)
The elements in this series are representative of larger ideas, and are themselves only agents.
“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.” (J Swaminathan, “The Traditional
Numen and Contemporary Art,”
Lalit Kala Contemporary
, No. 29, New Delhi: Lalit Kala Akademi,
1980, p. 11) In the placement of these objects, Swaminathan played with notions of reflection
and shadow, thereby raising questions about existence and perception. His “obsession” with
these repetitive motifs inspired a range of widely differing reactions. While Krishna Chaitanya
allegedly threatened to throw a stone at any such future works, Ashok Vajpeyi, Sarveshwar
Dayal Saxena and Krishen Khanna wrote poems inspired by this series.
In the 1970s, Swaminathan, alongside other artists, initiated a call for reforming the Lalit Kala
Akademi, and briefly served as its board member and organised a successful international
triennale. Towards the end of that decade, he was invited by the government to establish the
Roopankar Museum of Fine Arts at Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.
A UNIVERSE OF COLOUR
“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