Jagdish Swaminathan

Jagdish Swaminathan was born in Simla in 1928. His education in art consisted of short spells at the Delhi Polytechnic and later, in Poland. It was only in the late 50's that he started devoting his time completely to art. He was a member of the Communist Party of India in the mid-50's and worked as a journalist and art critic for the Left magazines. Swaminathan founded the "Group 1890" in August 1962. This group put up their only show in 1963. As a solo artist, he put up about 31 shows and participated in a number of national as well as international exhibitions.

Swami brought the tribal art of Central India into contemporary focus through Bharat Bhavan. Swami was among the first who bagged Nehru Fellowship, through his thesis titled ‘Relevance of the Traditional Neumen to Contemporary Art’ remained unfinished but it was the beginning of understanding the tribal psyche which he later translated through oil shades. He died in 1994 in New Delhi.