Untitled (Bird, Tree, Mountain)

After an interesting career as a political agitator, an author of children's books and a journalist, Swaminathan dedicated himself to drawing and painting, studying first at the Delhi Polytechnic, and then on a grant at the Fine Arts Academy in Warsaw in 1958. In the late 1960s and 70s, following his Colour Geometry of Space series where he explored flat geometric planes of colour, Swaminathan began combining elements from nature in his conceptual landscapes. "After the Colour Geometry show I entered the now famous phase of the bird, the mountain, the tree, the reflection, the shadow, and it lasted for quite a while [...] However, the obsession was wonderful while it lasted and what better tribute would a painter want than a letter from a collector [saying] that my work brought peace and tranquility into her house." (Lalit Kala Contemporary 40, March 1995, New Delhi, p. 11.)

Underlying Swaminathan's works is a deep spiritual reverence that seeks to reveal undiscovered forces through nature. The mystical works of this period are luminous and suggestive and induce the meditative stillness that became the artist's obsession.