‘But the irony of history is such
that when there was relative calm in 1957 and King Mahendra instituted the Royal
Nepal Academy as the upholder and custodian of Art, Culture and Literature of
the country, someone who had never stepped inside the country earlier was
chosen to ‘represent art’ of Nepal. For sure, Lain Singh Bangdel – the new
member - was born, brought up, and was working in a place other than Nepal . All the
local rightful claimants (aspirants) for the post then who had struggled so
long and so hard to lay the very genesis of the Western style of painting in
Nepal and were responsible for the achievements so far, including Tej Bahadur
Chitrakar, were ignominiously ignored. Only King Mahendra knew the reasons. And
above all, without prejudice it should be read in the context that in 1924 when
Lain Singh was still a toddler, Tej Bahadur and Chandra Man Maskey were
painting portraits from life in the Government School of Arts, Calcutta – the
same institution Bangdel himself got enrolled into some twenty years later.’
mortification
So writes Madan Chitrakar in his book
, ‘Tej Bahadur Chitrakar – Icon of a Transition’, published in 2004. It can be
presumed that this book was one way for the son, Madan Chitrakar, to redeem his
father’s indignity suffered in his lifetime due to the erstwhile king’s perceptibly
misguided action. This was only natural, one must say, because it is clear that
Madan idolizes his late father, the great artist Tej Bahadur, and actually,
Madan is right – it must have been a belittling experience for so accomplished
an artist. And how accomplished he was, was very much evident from his classy paintings displayed during the
exhibition, ‘Images of a Lifetime – A Historical Perspective’ at the Siddhartha
Art Gallery in November / December 2005.
Madan Chitrakar, the son, is no
less accomplished himself. As an artist, he is very much at the centre of the today’s
Nepalese art world. As an art writer, he is one of the few such entities giving
impetus to Nepalese art through the medium of words that are wise,
knowledgeable and discerning. He is proud of having written the book on his
father and this, he says, was one of the many positive results arising out of
his ‘second coming’. In 1999, on the verge of reaching the golden median in his
life, and after having worked in a cushy job at the Ministry of Tourism for
almost twenty years, Madan quit his job
– a job that most would have given their eyeteeth to retain. “I was chastised
roundly by many well wishers for leaving a position that allowed me many
benefits, including, traveling around the world at least a couple of times
every year,” he remembers. “But the realization had already struck that I was
nearing fifty, and that I had precious little productive time in which to attain
my goals in the fields of painting and art literature, both of which I regard
as my first calling. Immediately after I retired from my job, I sat down to seriously
writing a book about my father.”
It was not that, before, he had
stopped altogether the pursuit of his deep interests but still, Madan admits to
being held bondage by the more humdrum part of his life. His words further
emphasize this point. He says, “I felt liberated after quitting my work.” But,
even to a lay observer, it is apparent that the artist is still not quite as
liberated as he must be to reach the high plateau he seeks in his artistic
endeavours. At least not when one
realizes that he is as busy as ever – this time, as visiting faculty of three
art colleges – Lalitkala, Shrijana and the Art and Design Department of
Kathmandu University. It is of course an expected outcome in the sequence of
events since he also holds a Master’s in Art History from Tribhuvan University Kathmandu
University and the very first batch of
graphic designers from Nepal
will be passing out shortly.” His elation is justified because he himself majored in Applied Arts while doing his five
year course at the J J School of Arts in Mumbai.
Earlier, he had done his IA from
Trichandra College (“My father wanted me to be a doctor” – a familiar tale),
after finishing school from the historic Durbar High School near his home in
Tanlachhi (Teuda) tole in the equally historic Ason area. As can be expected of
an intellectual and an artist, added to the historic and traditional
environment which has been a part of his upbringing, Madan Chitrakar says he is
pained to note that even the creative community have chosen to ignore and not
recognize the great legacy of Kathmandu ’s
heritage as a source of pride and inspiration. Supposedly, this was the motivation
behind ‘The Vanishing Heritage’ – a collection of sketches and drawings
exhibited at the J Art gallery in December 1999. Nonetheless, how far he
himself is conscious of, and more importantly, enthused towards preserving his
own immediate famous surroundings is a question that only the artist himself
can answer. Needless to say, it would be a boon to many to have this historic
core centre of the Capital conserved for all eternity, for this area does have
great significance to the city as a whole – specially with regard to the Newari
way of life.
Madan Chitrakar is now planning
to have his seventh exhibition in the next few months and is getting a
collection ready. A sneak preview of finished works show that the artist is
indeed in the throes of celebrating his ‘second coming’. A veritable reflection,
one must say, of a greatly rejuvenated frame of mind – one that is at once
playfully celebratory, invigoratingly reawakened and above all, brightly
optimistic. The country might be in the doldrums and the overall state of the
state might be as bad as it ever was, but, and this is the remarkable thing,
Madan Chitrakar, as an individual entity and as an artist out to get his
priorities right this time around, appears
to have decided to follow his, and only his, inner calling. In the process, and
for the moment at least, his canvases quite truthfully mirror the artist’s new
found ‘liberation’, with the result that the paintings positively shine due to
the artist’s simplicity of approach, due to the paintings’ meaningful contents,
and equally, due to a frank ‘less-is-more’ attitude clearly evident in the
collection as a whole. Surely, it will be an exhibition that will play its part
in stimulating the Nepalese art world further, besides obviously, inspiring the
artist himself to seek deeper into himself for strength and conviction to
continue on the chosen path with renewed vigour.
Vigour and such things aside,
Madan Chitrakar is the type of man who can almost be allegorized to the iron
hand within a velvet glove. Outwardly a gentleman to the core, and soft spoken,
one can sense that he carries a firm set of convictions within himself, and
more importantly (he is a reputed writer after all) is not unduly shy of
expressing views in a forthright manner. Thus it was that, at the recently held
workshop for ‘senior’ artists in the Singha Art Gallery in Patan, Madan, in his
speech, lamented at the lack of progression in even some ‘senior’ artists’ works,
a development which he said should have been a natural turn of events through
the constantly changing passage of time. No doubt, he was speaking not only
from his vast art knowledge over the decades, but also through his own personal
experience. Therefore, and specially also with this to compare to, he seems
happy with what he himself has been able to accomplish. Indeed, Madan Chitrakar
can be said to be an artist who keeps himself abreast with the times and to
repeat another cliché, has traveled a considerable distance since his first
exhibition at the Nepal Bharat Sanskritik Kendra in 1975 even if the going has
been a bit slow for reasons already enunciated herein. “I have not had many
solo exhibitions, the next one will only be the seventh,” he admits. “Although
I have participated in quite a few group exhibitions here and abroad.”
It can be foreseen that there
still will not be many exhibitions of this artist’s works in future too, this
because he is as desirous of contributing to art literature in Nepal as he is
to painting. Which naturally will mean a division of precious time. And, as everybody knows, while
contemporary painting may be comparatively less time-consuming, writing, and specially on weighty subjects of
historical value entailing much research, is another matter entirely. In the
first instance, writing requires knowledge, and knowledge requires a lot of
reading. Which, as it happens, is something the artist / writer appears to be
quite obsessed with. And, so, one will find all sorts of books and periodicals
on cupboard shelves and tables in his office as well as in other rooms of his
home. The books are on diverse subjects and the magazines are varied in
content.
All this means that, this is one
artist whose exhibitions, when and if they are organized, naturally become
‘events’ if for nothing else, then for their paucity. About past shows, he claims
that all have fared well from the commercial aspect, but that, after 2000, he wished
to go beyond conservatism in style and substance and ceased to care much about
the money-making part. One is tempted to say here that, actually, if only the
artist could also go beyond other remaining ‘comfort zones’ with as much
realization and desire, then certainly, some additional fireworks could be
sparked off in the country’s art scene. However, with a wife as pretty as Indu
(and a helpful housewife as well), and with an engineer son, Monish (presently
in the United States) as well as a cute little grand daughter, Asmi - from his
happily married daughter, Mona, - to play doting grandfather with, one must say
that the bonds are pretty strong. And very comforting.
However, all things considered,
and keeping in mind the artist’s apparently burning desire to make good use of remaining
time in the pursuit of his artistic and literary goals, it will be hoped that
Madan Chitrakar will succeed in achieving the perfect balance he really seems
to be searching for. Notwithstanding his declaration, “I am in a hurry to
achieve my dreams now.”
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