Jatin Das

Trivia

• Jatin das has also made many exquisite murals for numerous public as well as private buildings.
• Besides paintings he is involved in other activities too like he is the member of the jury board for the National Film Festival and one of the founder member of the poetry society, New Delhi.
• Jatin Das had been a teacher at the Jamia Milia University, School of Planning and Architecture and the prestigious National School of Drama.
• Jatin das served as the Consultant to the Handicraft Board for the seven northeastern states in India for the `Festival in India` organized in Russia.
• Fourteen limited editions of his theme-based graphics and narrative drawings have been taken out in India,UK and Germany.
• In 1991, Lalit Kala Academy held a retrospective of his works. Jatin Das attended twelve artist camps and four workshops and even offered his valuable art works in fourteen charity shows in India.
• Jatin Das arranged thirty-seven solo exhibitions, both national and international.
• Jatin Das is the master of using colors in an exceptional way, which seem to reveal the tinges of every emotional expression in his paintings.
• Some important exhibitions where he participated include the Biennales in Paris (1971), and in Venice (1978) and the Documenta in Kessel (1975).
• His term at the school lasted for a period of five years, from 1957 to 1962. Thereafter, Jatin Das started participating in the art exhibitions, both at the national as well as the international level.

Quotes

• "I do not like the word celebrity. We are just doing our work. I am a painter and Nandita Das is an actress and we try to do do our jobs well. That is all. However, it makes me feel happy."
• "I am passionate about music and admire maestros like Kumar Gandharv and Bhimsen Joshi. I also write poetry in English. I have published a volume of my poems and I am currently working on the second volume. Besides, I love plants, animals and cooking."
• "Anything between five to ten to fifteen hours a day, and sometimes none at all."
• "I have experimented with and used diverse media including oils, water colours and ink printing."
• "I admire Michelangelo, Da Vinci and Ram Kinkar Baij. Everything inspires me......plants animals, the sky, the clouds, light, people, painting, music, dance, fabrics and so forth."
• "The crux of my work is dynamism, passion, movement, energy. My works are not narrative in the sense they do not tell any stories.They have no parameters of time and space. The figure in my works are bare and minimal. They hardly reveal anything about what is being depicted."
• "I do not look at art from the point of view of success or failure. I paint because I love to paint, not to gather name and fame. I am a worker and a student. I do not care for success. Praise or condemnation do not affect me at all."
• "Art is my life, my passion, my release, my vision and my anguish."
• "I firmly believe every human being has some innate ability to paint, sing or dance. Of these, painting comes naturally to every individual. Only it has to be nurtured and developed. The Victorian concept of "I cannot draw a straight line" is rather vulgar, I think. Therefore, I would like to say that painting came to me naturally. Moreover, I was born and grew up in Mayurbhanj district of Orissa- a culturally enriched area and replete with natural beauty, a fine blend of sands and the sea. I re