Untitled

There is something in the vast complex of our racial psyche, from the austere, crystalline poetry of our Vedic forbears to the awesome pantheon of gods and demons, from the abstract metaphysics of Hindu thought to the threatening totems of the folk ritual, that bears its head against the wall of the Pseudoscience that our so-called intelligentsia has inherited from Modern Western culture. It is only when Indian painters tear asunder the false veil of Western progressivism that he will be able to make the "Numinous" image manifest and create art significant to us, and so to the world.

(J. Swaminathan, 'The New Promise', Lalit Kala Contemporary 40, March 1995, p. 20)

Swaminathan combined elements from nature in conceptual landscapes which juxtaposed pure expanses of color to induce meditative stillness in the viewer - in service of a 'numinous', ethereal reality. This work, in tripartite format, demonstrates a metaphysical progression: from the subtle evocation of mountain and rock on the left, through to the vivid, red staircase and soaring bird on the right. Here mountain, rocks and archetypal bird defying gravity depict a 'para-natural' space. The artist simultaneously embraced the metaphysical imagery of Surrealism whilst preserving formal aspects of Indian tradition.