Jagdish Swaminathan (1929-1994)

In the 1960's Swaminathan left journalism and became a professional painter.  In reference to his early works, Isana Murthy states "Swami’s greater contribution was in giving Indian sources a contemporary validity and visual identity. His use of flat colours and spaces in his early work is reminiscent of the Indian miniature and I cannot recall anyone before Swami using the vivid Indian yellow in the manner he did".  The artist states "In the 60s I made a 180 degree switch in my painting. I tried to probe the relation of colour to space and after a study of pahari miniatures did a series called the Colour Geometry of Space. After the colour geometry show I entered the now famous phase of the bird, the mountain, the tree, the reflection of the shadow and it lasted for quite a while…"  Although the current work is untitled and undated it appears to have been painted at the same time as the Color of Geometry series but it has been previously titled "the Bird", although the title cannot be substantiated it is tempting to suggest that the current work represents a transitional phase between the two series.