Jagdish Swaminathan made his presence felt in the Capital's art world in the 50’s and 60’s mainly as an art critic and theoretician of art He earned lots of badges in his lifetime to be called Artist, Painter, Poet and Writer

Born in Shimla in 1929, He had brief spells of art education at the Delhi Polytechnic and in Warsaw, Poland, and in the late 50's he decided to become a full-time artist Meanwhile, he also had a political career, he joined the Congress Socialist Party and also worked as a sub-editor of a Hindi short story magazine, and later as an editor of Mazdoor Awaz magazine In 1948, he joined the Communist Party of India

Painted with captivating simplicity, his paintings explored the pictorial possibilities of his limited imagery which were emblematic of elements necessary for man's survival on earth and interpretatively the numerous permutations and combinations of the imagery and bright colours suggested the ascent of man's inner being leaving the gross and the sullied

 

In August 1962, Swaminathan and some other artists founded the “Group 1890”, the mystifying number being the house number of Jayant and Jyoti Pandya at Bhavnagar The other members of the group were Jeram Patel, Rajesh Mehra, Ambadas Khobragade, Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh, Eric Bowen, Himmat Shah, Nagji Patel, Redappa Naidu and Jyoti Bhatt 

 

In 1968, he received the Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship for the research on "The significance of the traditional Numan to Contemporary Art" He actively helped vernacular and regional tribal artists to gain international recognition In this process, he is responsible for discovering a first known modern-day Gond tribal artist of Madhya Pradesh, Jangarh Singh Shyam He took him to various cities where his paintings were exhibited Soon, he gained international recognition and his work was exhibited in Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States

 

Swaminathan was a member of the International Jury of the Sao Paolo Biennale and served on the board of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations He was also a trustee of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, and in 1981, the Government of Madhya Pradesh invited him to set up the art museum Roopanker at Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal As the Director of Roopankar, Swaminathan served till 1990 He held about thirty one-man shows and participated in many national and international exhibitions Swaminathan died in 1994 

 

He will be always cherished for his simplistic yet intense art and especially for the birds and mountains series It was the simplest subject but appreciated by everybody His combination of bright colours and delighted nature subjects are unparalleled till now