.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Jagdish Swaminathan was an outspoken advocate of indigenous art in India. In his own practice, he rejected academism, the modernism that the Progressive Artists’ Group had so strongly embraced, and the sentimentality of the Bengal School. For Swaminathan, art was meant to reveal the essence of existence, which he found to be a defining characteristic of tribal and folk art. Regarding the artistry of tribal communities and their importance in society, he noted, “Respecting the innate creative genius of the Adivasi people, just as we respect our own, we are seeing them as living in commonality with us. We see our fates inexorably linked together, and the new artistic ethos can only be born if this commonality is realized” (Artist statement, The Perceiving Fingers, Bhopal, 1987, p. 38).
“Swaminathan’s aesthetic, which held that folk art, tribal art, and urban art are all equally valid versions of the contemporary, might appropriately be termed a ‘post-colonial aesthetic’” (V. Dehejia, “Text Decoded’, Beyond the Legacy, Washington, 1998, p. 202). The present lot is a significant example of this ‘post-colonial’ aesthetic. The painting’s geometric structure is divided into multiple rectangular spaces, each of which is given a unique identity through the artist’s use of color and pattern. This unique vocabulary and approach to art and the depiction of reality was largely based on Swaminathan’s observations of the artistic behavior of tribal communities. He recalls, “When provided with paper, what they turned out was so unexpected that we were dumbstruck. Instead of making chauwks or animal and human forms or ritualistic symbols, they invariably produced doodles with rudiments of the Dev Nagri script interspersed with animal, human and vegetative forms: Without any written language of their own, they perhaps realised the power of the written word in their contact with the police, the forest guards and the entire oppressive machine, and they were magically invoking it for self protection and for amelioration from their sorry plight” (Artist statement, ‘Pre Naturalistic Art and Post Naturalistic Vision: An Approach to the Appreciation of Tribal Art, Demography of Tribal Development’, The Perceiving Fingers, Bhopal, 1987, p. 56).
These are the ‘doodles’ that Swaminathan takes inspiration from and adopts in his own work, like the present lot. Here, both script-like and natural forms can be identified amongst the markings used by the artist. The influence of tribal and folk art on his work is further accentuated by the artist’s use of an earthy, raw palette, incorporation of natural materials and unique technique. Frequently, Swaminathan, would use his hands to paint in an organic effort to understand, believe and reveal better than the brush. Even in his most abstract paintings, this connection allowed him to create a meditative space in which reality and illusion overlap.
“Swaminathan’s aesthetic, which held that folk art, tribal art, and urban art are all equally valid versions of the contemporary, might appropriately be termed a ‘post-colonial aesthetic’” (V. Dehejia, “Text Decoded’, Beyond the Legacy, Washington, 1998, p. 202). The present lot is a significant example of this ‘post-colonial’ aesthetic. The painting’s geometric structure is divided into multiple rectangular spaces, each of which is given a unique identity through the artist’s use of color and pattern. This unique vocabulary and approach to art and the depiction of reality was largely based on Swaminathan’s observations of the artistic behavior of tribal communities. He recalls, “When provided with paper, what they turned out was so unexpected that we were dumbstruck. Instead of making chauwks or animal and human forms or ritualistic symbols, they invariably produced doodles with rudiments of the Dev Nagri script interspersed with animal, human and vegetative forms: Without any written language of their own, they perhaps realised the power of the written word in their contact with the police, the forest guards and the entire oppressive machine, and they were magically invoking it for self protection and for amelioration from their sorry plight” (Artist statement, ‘Pre Naturalistic Art and Post Naturalistic Vision: An Approach to the Appreciation of Tribal Art, Demography of Tribal Development’, The Perceiving Fingers, Bhopal, 1987, p. 56).
These are the ‘doodles’ that Swaminathan takes inspiration from and adopts in his own work, like the present lot. Here, both script-like and natural forms can be identified amongst the markings used by the artist. The influence of tribal and folk art on his work is further accentuated by the artist’s use of an earthy, raw palette, incorporation of natural materials and unique technique. Frequently, Swaminathan, would use his hands to paint in an organic effort to understand, believe and reveal better than the brush. Even in his most abstract paintings, this connection allowed him to create a meditative space in which reality and illusion overlap.