Untitled

J. Swaminathan, by his own admission, was the first Indian modernist to explore tantra-inspired imagery in his work, despite not drawing on either the precepts or visual codes of tantric art, except its geometric forms and pictorial order. This Untitled oil from the 1960s, the decade in which Group 1890, which he co-founded, had its first and only exhibition, pulsates with strong, earthy colours, and possesses an understated elegance that at once commands attention.