Signal Tablets 1974

Jagdish Swaminathan made this 'Signal Tablets' painting, we don't know exactly when, using a dark and earthy palette that feels so ancient, like it was pulled straight from the earth. You can almost smell the cave it was painted in. Looking closely, you can see the textures he's built up, layers of thin paint scrubbed and scraped back, revealing these ghostly images underneath. Check out the handprints at the top, like someone was reaching out from the darkness. And then there are these little symbols, scratched in, like a secret language waiting to be deciphered. There's a similar thing going on in Cy Twombly's work, a kind of primal mark-making that taps into something deep within us. Swaminathan isn't trying to tell you what to think, he's inviting you to get lost in the mystery, to feel the weight of history in every brushstroke.