Jagdish Swaminathan was born in Simla on 21st June 1928 and passed away in 1994. His education in art consisted of short spells at the Delhi Polytechnic where he trained under artists Sailoz Mukherjee and Bhabesh Chandra Sanyal, and later in 1957 he joined the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, 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. J. Swaminathan was one of the co-founders of short-lived artists group 'Group-1890' founded in Bhavnagar, Gujarat, in August 1962, other 11 members of the group included Jeram Patel, Rajesh Mehra, Ambadas Gade, Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh, Errik Bhoven, Himmat Shah and Jyoti Bhatt. This group put up their only show in 1963.
The main feature of his paintings was simplicity that was rather captivating. The vivid imagery and bright colours were a celebration of the rise of the inner being over the common place. Later on, the well ordered colour geometry and brush painting, gave way to the use of symbols. The latter was a distinct influence of the tribal arts and he began to use his fingers to apply the pigment in order to achieve the desired effect.
"The Significance of the Traditional Numen in Contemporary Art", a project that he worked on, won him the Nehru Fellowship. He served as a member of the International Jury at the Sao Paolo Biennale and was also a trustee at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts. In 1981, he set up the art museum "Roopanker" at the Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal. He served as the director of the institute till 1990.
J. Swaminathan put up about 31 solo shows and participated in a number of national as well as international exhibitions.
