Concept and struggle

Too much water has flown under the bridge," says artist Jatin Das as we sit in his studio in Delhi. Das frets that we have to wrap up the interview in an hour or so "" too short a time for this rendezvous "" "a whole day would have been apt," he says.

Nevertheless, in between the frenzy of instructions to assistants for an upcoming show at Lalit Kala Akademi in New Delhi, Das says that "I am still struggling, still starting out as an artist." It sounds contradictory if one looks back at the five decades of his life as an artist.

When Das was 17 and studying biology, a return trip from Delhi to his hometown Mayaurbhanj in Orissa with an award for an inter-university youth painting competition from then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru nudged him into pursuing art and join the JJ School of Arts in Mumbai.

At art school he adopted Michelangelo as his hero and would draw up to 300 sketches daily "" each strengthening the line that was to become his forte over the decades.

So when Das talks about still struggling as an artist, he clarifies that "I still struggle in concept," whereas in the world today struggle refers purely to the monetary.

"The real strength is while painting "" to make it evolve," he says, dislodging notions that his days of monetary struggle are also not over. He claims to grapple with both even after 49 years as an artist.

"I have only one house to claim," he says, "that too given on special concession to artists by the government." He doesn't sell much, he tells us, and whatever he does goes to the Jatin Das Centre of Arts that he has setup in Bhubaneshwar.

Das has worn many hats "" and quite literally too as he's fond of sporting a dazzling variety at art shows. As an artist, he has worked in several media "" dabbling with watercolours, oils, acrylics, inks, sketches, graphics, sculpture and murals.

"As one eats a variety of food for taste so do I for my art," he reasons. The human predicament has never left Das's works "" the human form, usually devoid of clothing or adornment, clueless in its bareness of worldly activities, absorbed in itself "" in anguish, pain, love and relationships.

"Of no time and no place" says a poster from one of his exhibitions, defining the totality of his style. The line in his paintings is defined and strong in its discontinuity, where his brushstrokes tend to be breezier, though they're no less powerful for that. The palette is dominated by primary colours.

Over the last 20 years, Das has developed a passion for collecting hand fans, and has collected and documented over 5,000 pankahs, a majority from the Indian subcontinent.

"It's the largest collection of hand fans with anyone," he says, while lighting a cigarette and pointing to a matchbox with, "I collect these too".

Indian artists and its art aficionados might feel it is one of the best times for Indian art, but for Das the current art scene suggests a dangerous trend.

For him, "Art is still not a household thing where people will buy reproductions if they can't afford the originals, and the common man doesn't know much about our art or about artists," he says. "The appreciation of art needs to evolve much more," he sighs.