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Kathmandu Sunday November 04, 2001 Kartik 19, 2058.
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Artworks by Nepali and British painters on
display
By Perina Pathak
KATHMANDU, Nov 3 – A group of artists, Nepali as well as
British joined hands to present their works in a group exhibition. The exhibition entitled
Nepal – England Art Exchange kicked off on Nov 1 and will continue till Nov 8 at the
Nepal Art Council Gallery (NACG).
"The main aim of this joint exhibition is to promote and
establish a good cultural relation between the two countries," says Shant Kumar Rai,
Secretary of the NAC-Group who is also one of the artists in the exhibition.
The paintings put on display are that of Nepal’s
villages, terraces, Himalayan journey, hillsides and many more among others, which the
painters have captured in their paintings after their visit to different places of the
Kingdom.
The two woodcut paintings – Buffalo Wallowing and Oxen
Ploughing with their attractive and natural form were made from wood plate printed on the
paper. The other attraction put on display is Nepali paper used for painting.
Says one of the Indian spectators and buyer of a collage
painting entitled Rooftops of Kathmandu that the painting is bit disturbing but will give
remembrance of the Kathmandu Valley after leaving the place.
Organised by NACG and New Art Circle- Group, the exhibition
consists of altogether 60 paintings. Among the 60 paintings, 27 are from England and
others are the works of the Nepali artists from New Art Circle (NAC) – Group.
The paintings of the British painters are the unique
presentation of woodcut, collage, etching among others present in the exhibition such as
acrylic, gouache and watercolour.
The exhibition has already been organised in countries like
England, Scotland, and Ireland, where around 30 paintings of Nepali artist were sold in
five different cities of the countries.
"In every place where the exhibition was held, the
people’s response was very positive and appreciated Nepali art," Rai said.
"Here also people appreciate our work but we have no Nepali buyers, this makes us a
bit sad."
"The main problem here is that the government
doesn’t pay attention towards developing this field", laments Rai, adding that
the government has separated only 1.4 million rupees for Nepal Association of Fine Arts
and 2,90,000 for NACG.
"The money allocated is very few for the development of
fine arts as it is enough only for official expenses," Rai said. "Government
calls art the nation’s pillar and the main source for tourism promotion but does
nothing for its preservation."
"This field has been preserved only from individual
efforts", artists said. And artists’ group like NAC is working hard toward this
objective, presenting art in new form. "We have tried our best to present Nepali art
in new form as majority of artists follow the same old track," said Rai. "The
Group comes at certain intervals with exhibitions that present colour revolution (with
changes in the ways of using colours).
From the amount of money raised in the exhibition NAC has a
plan to organise another exhibition in the near future.
Rai is optimistic that only in this field the Nepalis can
achieve success if competition is held at the international level.
The former chancellor of Royal Nepal Academy Lain Singh
Bangdel in his message has said that the artists of today have to work with new vigor,
ideas, and energy and also they require a lots of experiments.
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