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PROPERTY OF A SWISS DIPLOMAT 

PERCEPTION

49 by 49 in. (124.5 by 124.5 cm.)

Signed and dated 'J. Swaminathan '72' and signed in Devanagari on reverse, with inscription 'J. Swaminathan/ 4. Perception XV' on exhibition label

Oil on canvas

PROVENANCE

Acquired by the current owner from Gallery Chanakya, New Delhi, when he was a diplomat in India during the early 1970`s

NOTE

Swaminathan's conceptual landscapes are his iconic works. The floorless flat planes of saturated yellows and orange delineate and contrast with asymmetrical segments of fine detailing. The mountainous forms appear to be abstracted in the manner of an aerial map but conceptually the works are more complex. The delicate insect, the only identifiable feature, creates a scale which suggests that the landscape is instead a magnified view of minutiae. Yet regardless of these intentional ambiguities the painting masterfully resonates calm. 'Given the life of the canvas and the colors, a painting is immutable, fixed and eternal. It does not know growth and decay. Yet it has a life of its own, in as much as it is never the same to any two persons in space or even the same person in time. Like Zeno's arrow, it is moving yet still, changeless yet changing.' (J. Swaminathan, "The Traditional Numen and Contemporary Art," in Lalit Kala Contemporary 29, April 1980, pp. 5-10).