The ‘Swami-isms’
J Swaminathan in his death as well as in his life remains a constant source of refreshing ideas to all who knew him and read him. An original when everyone was trying to imitate each other’s success. The recent show, Transits of A Wholetimer: J. Swaminathan 1950-1969 contains his letters, articles, paintings, forming a document of his early life and art.
He was a ‘culturalist’ if we may coin the term who went well beyond just visual arts. He created vital linkages with other arts and ideas.
He certainly did not take himself with earnestness and seriousness. Wit was his hallmark.
In one of his auto-bio-notes he wrote, “now we were getting fed up with this kind of crap,” about the ideas being flogged by other painters of his time. He is often labelled an iconoclast for his forthright views on art, politics, fellow artists and various pretensions assumed by institutions and people.
An influential ideologue, he understood the aesthetic tradition of India and therefore did not feel the need to hide behind esoteric language. Swaminathan’s articles attest to this ability to demystify and make accessible his ideas, Communist, post-Communist and as aesthete: however unlike others of his ilk, he was neither preachy nor prosy. His paintings were independent and liberal in their inclusiveness and Swami averred, “I do not believe that I have to say anything through my paintings. A work of art to me is an enigma, and the power it exercises over me is magical, not rational.”
After his sojourn in Betul he began to empathize and delve into folk-tribal art considering it as valid and contemporary. His own art remained organic and fresh, and one can trace the beginnings of his Hill, Tree and Bird series of paintings in earth colours with his exploration of colour geometry of space from 1966 onwards.
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