Nepali art has evolved over time from religious symbolic works to more secular styles influenced by Western trends. Traditional Nepali art included manuscript illuminations, devotional paintings, and wall murals depicting gods and goddesses. During the Rana regime from the 19th to 20th centuries, portraits of the Rana rulers replaced religious themes, and styles like oil painting and landscapes were introduced. After Nepal opened to democracy in 1951, Western styles like Impressionism and Cubism gained popularity as Nepali artists explored more personal and abstract approaches. Contemporary Nepali artists now seek to balance traditional techniques with global influences by listening to their inner creative voice.
Nepali art has evolved over time from religious symbolic works to more secular styles influenced by Western trends. Traditional Nepali art included manuscript illuminations, devotional paintings, and wall murals depicting gods and goddesses. During the Rana regime from the 19th to 20th centuries, portraits of the Rana rulers replaced religious themes, and styles like oil painting and landscapes were introduced. After Nepal opened to democracy in 1951, Western styles like Impressionism and Cubism gained popularity as Nepali artists explored more personal and abstract approaches. Contemporary Nepali artists now seek to balance traditional techniques with global influences by listening to their inner creative voice.
Nepali art has evolved over time from religious symbolic works to more secular styles influenced by Western trends. Traditional Nepali art included manuscript illuminations, devotional paintings, and wall murals depicting gods and goddesses. During the Rana regime from the 19th to 20th centuries, portraits of the Rana rulers replaced religious themes, and styles like oil painting and landscapes were introduced. After Nepal opened to democracy in 1951, Western styles like Impressionism and Cubism gained popularity as Nepali artists explored more personal and abstract approaches. Contemporary Nepali artists now seek to balance traditional techniques with global influences by listening to their inner creative voice.
Nepali art has evolved over time from religious symbolic works to more secular styles influenced by Western trends. Traditional Nepali art included manuscript illuminations, devotional paintings, and wall murals depicting gods and goddesses. During the Rana regime from the 19th to 20th centuries, portraits of the Rana rulers replaced religious themes, and styles like oil painting and landscapes were introduced. After Nepal opened to democracy in 1951, Western styles like Impressionism and Cubism gained popularity as Nepali artists explored more personal and abstract approaches. Contemporary Nepali artists now seek to balance traditional techniques with global influences by listening to their inner creative voice.
formulae 1 perhaps one of the best ways of creating art.devotional paubha painting,
religious to secular, objective to subjective,
and so on. Earliest arts and architectures were symbolic. They depicted something but signified something else. They have didactic values, they are mystical and magical. The deities and human figures always have youthful body even in death bed. The artworks are anthropomorphic in the sense that even the divinities are in human form and express human emotions. The early forms of Nepali paintings are manuscript illumination, paubha, mandala, pata (narrative scroll painting) and wall.
During the Rana regime, secular themes,
realism and oil colour replaced religious themes, symbolism and home-made colours. Instead of gods and goddesses, the portraits of the Rana rulers and their family members were executed. In this period, the art of portrait reached to its climax in the history of Nepali art. Landscape with hunting scenes and still life paintings were also created. Western Neoclassical architecture influenced the Nepali architecture.
After the fall of the Rana regime and the
establishment of democracy in Nepal in 1951 A.D., many western influences entered in the domain of Nepali art due to the cross-flow of people within and across the border. Gradually, Nepali artists began to practice the techniques of Impressionism, Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Dadaism, Abstractionism and Surrealism. The art shifted from Realism to Abstractionism, public to personal, objective to subjective. Nepali artists began to explore their inner self rather than representing external objects and events.
Nepali artists are aware of their own tradition
and the novel trends in the world art. They have learned the past and absorbed the contemporary, now they are attempting to unlearn the rules and formulae what they had learned, and hearing their own inner voice, creating their own codes and putting their own signature in subconscious manner. Listening to oneself and expressing in one’s own visual language is perhaps one of the best ways of creating art. During the Rana regime, secular themes, realism and oil colour replaced religious themes, symbolism and home-made colours. Instead of gods and goddesses, the portraits of the Rana rulers and their family members were executed. In this period, the art of portrait reached to its climax in the history of Nepali art. Landscape with hunting scenes and still life paintings were also created. Western Neoclassical architecture influenced the Nepali architecture.
After the fall of the Rana regime and the
establishment of democracy in Nepal in 1951 A.D., many western influences entered in the domain of Nepali art due to the cross-flow of people within and across the border. Gradually, Nepali artists began to practice the techniques of Impressionism, Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Dadaism, Abstractionism and Surrealism. The art shifted from Realism to Abstractionism, public to personal, objective to subjective. Nepali artists began to explore their inner self rather than representing external objects and events.
Nepali artists are aware of their own tradition
and the novel trends in the world art. They have learned the past and absorbed the contemporary, now they are attempting to unlearn the rules and formulae what they had learned, and hearing their own inner voice, creating their own codes and putting their own signature in subconscious manner. Listening to oneself and expressing in one’s own visual language is perhaps one of the best ways of creating art.
Nepali art is as old as Nepali culture despite
the fact that we can only find the sculptures of fourth century A.D., the point of time in houses of Kathmandu valley despite the fact that the earliest Nepali painting ever found is the Prajnaparamita manuscript illumination. Our culture is as old as our civilization, and our art is a constituent part of our culture. Our cultural rituals and festivals integrate a number of arts as sculpture, music, painting, performance and installation. At the then time, art was not for art’s sake but for life. Art had spiritual as well as pragmatic value. We can find this trend, for instance, in Mithila art even today.