As Nepali art developed, it crossed a number

of stages. We can find the shift from religious

to secular, objective to subjective, external to
internal, others to self, referential to abstract
and so on. Earliest arts and architectures
were symbolic. They depicted something but
signified something else. They have didactic
values, that is, they teach moral lessons. As
they are religious, 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 painting.
Pagoda temple, Shikhara style temple, stupa
and monastery were the examples of
architecture.

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.