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Jatin Das’s work is distinctive for the way it makes the human figure feel both immediate and unfinished. Rapid marks, pared-down bodies and fleeting poses suggest movement and emotion without explaining exactly what a scene means. In a 2017 interview with Scroll.in, Das described this refusal of embellishment and formula in his own words: “I do my own thing. I don’t follow anybody.”
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The interview is historical rather than a guide to Das’s current exhibitions or representation. Its account of his methods, ideas and 2017 Mumbai show provides the clearest basis for understanding why his figures remain so open-ended.
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The interview opens with Das sketching the human figure “without adornment.” That phrase describes more than a visual simplification. His figures are not dressed up with decorative detail or pushed into a predetermined story. Das explains, “I don’t feel the figures need any embellishment.”
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Viewers instead encounter bodies as carriers of energy, tension and feeling. A hand reaching outward, two bodies leaning together or a figure caught in a leap can communicate before the viewer identifies a setting or event. The emotional charge comes from the pose and the mark, not from narrative information supplied around it.
Movement made from a few decisive marks
Das’s figures often appear to be arriving, turning or falling rather than standing still for inspection. The profile describes rapid brushstrokes and directional arcs that can establish an outstretched hand, paired figures or a body in mid-leap. A small number of gestures does the work that a fully described anatomy might otherwise perform.
This economy gives the images a sense of risk. A line can remain visibly a line while still implying a shoulder, a spine or the force of a moving limb. The result is dynamic without becoming theatrical: the viewer completes the action mentally.
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Why the bodies look discontinuous
Art critic and curator Nailini Malaviya calls Das’s treatment of the body “An intentional discontinuous approach in painting the human bodies creates multilayered narratives that are open to interpretation and draw the viewer into its folds.” Discontinuity here means that the figure may be interrupted, selectively described or assembled from separate visual cues.
Rather than supplying one complete, authoritative account of a person, the work leaves gaps. Those gaps allow several readings to coexist: physical action, emotional distance, intimacy, strain or play. The viewer is drawn into the image by having something to resolve, while the work refuses to close the interpretation for them.
Emotion without a fixed story
A useful example from the interview is On My Shoulder (2015). It shows two figures in a vibrant setting: one crouches and leans forward while the other places a leg over his head and supports him by the shoulder. The pose is unusual enough to demand attention, but the viewer is not given a definitive explanation of who the figures are or what has happened.
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That uncertainty is part of the painting’s expressive force. The physical arrangement can suggest trust, pressure, cooperation or imbalance without selecting one answer. Das’s figures “are doing their own thing,” as he puts it, and the viewer must decide how much of a story the pose actually contains.
Das’s independence is a stated working principle
Das does not present his approach as a formula to be followed. When discussing recognizable imagery and audience expectations, he says, “People are comfortable if they look at something that is recognisable,” he said. “I don’t do any of [that].” He also states, “I do my own thing. I don’t follow anybody.”
Those remarks describe his outlook in the interview; they should not be turned into a claim that his art has no influences. They do clarify his resistance to making a work merely conform to familiar visual habits. His distinctiveness lies partly in maintaining that independence while returning repeatedly to the figure, gesture and the possibilities of an unfinished image.
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What media appeared in Figures in Motion?
The historical exhibition Figures in Motion brought together several forms of this practice: drawings, ink sketches, oil paintings and watercolour paintings. The shared subject was not a single medium but the figure in action and the emotional pressure carried by its movement.
Changing medium can alter the speed and weight of a mark. Ink and drawing can preserve the immediacy of a gesture; oil and watercolour can expand the atmosphere around it. Across these formats, the interview emphasizes the same preference for active bodies and suggestive, rather than fully narrated, situations.
What was Figures in Motion?
Figures in Motion was a solo exhibition at Jehangir Art Gallery in Mumbai, scheduled for October 4–16, 2017. The interview described it as Das’s first Mumbai solo show after a seven-year hiatus. It primarily presented work made after his previous show in 2010, alongside some older pieces.
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These dates belong to the 2017 exhibition announcement and should not be read as current programming. The show’s title nevertheless captures the central concern described in the interview: figures understood through movement, interruption and expressive force.
Training, career and the wider setting
Das was born in Mayurbhanj, Odisha, began practicing art as a child and moved to Mumbai in his late teens to study at Sir J. J. School of Art. S. B. Palsikar was among his teachers. By the time of the interview, he had exhibited in India and abroad and had lived and worked in New Delhi for almost five decades. The profile also reports that he received the Padma Bhushan in 2012.
He founded the JD Centre of Art, whose collection includes traditional art and antiquities, including hand fans known as pankhas. This institutional work provides context for his long engagement with Indian visual culture, but the interview’s account of his distinctiveness remains focused on the direct encounter between mark, body and viewer.
How to look at a Jatin Das figure
- Start with the direction of the marks. Notice where arcs, strokes and gestures push the eye.
- Read the pose before inventing a plot. Ask what the bodies are doing physically without deciding who they are.
- Look for what is withheld. Missing anatomy, interrupted contours and undefined surroundings create interpretive space.
- Separate emotion from explanation. A figure can feel urgent, tender or unstable even when the image gives no single narrative.
- Return to the whole composition. The meaning may emerge from the relationship between figures rather than from either body alone.
Seen this way, Das’s work is not “unfinished” because it lacks skill or information. Its spareness is an active choice: enough description to make movement palpable, and enough openness for the viewer’s response to remain part of the work.
Quick Recap
Read the 2017 Scroll.in interview with Jatin Das.
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