Description

Ways of Seeing is a guided tour through the art of CV Swaminathan.

Chithur Vishwanatha Swaminathan (1925—2006) was a was a civil aviation engineer and a self-taught artist who painted compulsively all his adult life. His oeuvre covered portraits, still life and landscapes.

Ways of Seeing explores the artist’s memory space in the oil paintings exhibited at the Jehangir Art Gallery in March 2026.

Each painting is a geometric exposition of the vicissitudes of thought evoked by the expert handling of colour and light. The palette ranges from the brilliant to the austere, with many of the larger paintings done in severe monochrome.

The accompanying text narrates through each painting, Swaminathan’s equation with the entrapments and liberation that defined his relish for life.

Kalpana Swaminathan’s detective ‘Last Resort’ Lalli has appeared in ten novels set in Bombay. Kalpana shares the pseudonym Kalpish Ratna with fellow surgeon Ishrat Syed. Twice in Nalanda is their most recent novel.