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Abstract: Art has its environment and meaning, and it can exist free from a pedestal. Different approaches have sprung up with current environmental impacts, including other outdoor sculptures in Nepal as a modern movement. This form of activity has given new meaning to local indigenous values, art, and crafts. The transition started after some naturalistic sculptures, including equestrian statues, were brought from Europe and installed in the open environment. Environmental sculpture is a type of public art that creates or changes the spectators' surroundings. Nepalese sculptors have practiced a new genre as an alternative discipline of sculpture. A significant sculpture, Nirmāna, which means construction, was created by Thakur Prasad Mainali in 2024-25 B.S. at Bhirkutimandap, Kathmandu. Hence, two methodological approaches-primary observation and historical connections used to conduct this study. Besides numerous modern sculptures, this investigation focused on the earliest environmental sculptures. The study also explores the historical significance of sculpture in Nepal as it evolved and assimilated into modernity over time. After centuries of artistic and cultural legacy in Nepal, environmental sculpture underwent new changes. Keywords: Environmental, naturalism, modernity, monumental, architectonicIntroduction Environmental sculptures share a characteristic that distinguishes them from art history. While it also evoked the most intimate correlations between nature and art, it creates shadows and tints the illumination near a spot. This kind of sculpture is a sort of public art that alters or creates the exciting surroundings of the viewer. Environmental art began in the mid-1960s and has continued to the present day (Carlson, 2005). The environmental sculptures use new theories, materials, and processes. The trend has evolved toward site-specific and artistic expression, just as in the west. Notable sculptors are Tony Smith, George Segal, and Robert Smithson in the west; D.P. Roy Chaudhay, Ramkinker Baij, Sankho Chaudhary in India, and similarly, Thakur Prasad Mainali, Pramila Giri, and many more in Nepal. This paper has explored Nepali sculpture tradition changes into modernity, encountered with the outside world, especially with Europe. The Sugauli Treaty, signed in 1816 between Britain and Nepal, resulted in several new significant transformations in Nepali cultural aspects, particularly in determining the country's future art and architecture (Chitrakar, 2021). Previous writing on encounter with the naturalistic approaches of western art, Chitrakar (2012) states thatBritish Embassy in Kathmandu, one of the earlier staff members and scholars during 1919-20, was Brain Hodgson. He appointed Rajman Chitrakar, an artist, to illustrate the natural history subjects. Western realistic style has seen in the Nepali art tradition and the direct instruction by Hodgson (p. 116-17). Likewise, Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana and other officials visited Europe in 1851; Nepali traditional society incorporated western social realist art forms. Nepalese artists also traveled to India for academic instruction. Western art schools had been established in several locations to train artists and skilled workers. Tej Bahadur Chitrakar and Chandra Manshimha Maskey both graduated from Calcutta's Government School of Art. Ramananda Joshi and others also graduated from the Sir J.J. School of Arts in Bombay (Chitrakar, 2012). Following that, Nepali artists were familiar with new art forms' western techniques and materials. To study Nepali modernity in sculpture, it has concentrated on how Jung Bahadur's European trips had a significant impact on the arts of painting, sculpture, and architecture. Seven Equestrian statues and other types of antiquities have been brought from Europe. In the previous article, Khattri (2017) discussed these significant statues and other naturalistic sculptures of the soldiers. In 1925 A.D., the Nepali sculptor Ratna Bahadur Tuladhar erected a statue of a Gorkha soldier on top of the monumental Military Hospital. It served as the foundation for a new kind of sculpture on native land. The contemporary social life of the people is depicted on the base of Chandra Shumsher Rana's horse-riding sculpture. These also were carried from Europe, with the same equestrian statue. The eight significant reliefs served as an illustrative narration of the development of the city during his reign. In 1945, Ramkinker Baij and Sankho Chaudhary were invited from India to create a soldier's monument in Tundikhel (military parade ground) in Kathmandu. Sculptors in Nepal have received training from the ground up, much like painters. Thakur Prasad Mainali and Pramila Giri gained rigorous academic tutelage in western modern art in different art institutions in India. Govinda Narayan Jyapoo, Sushma Shimkhada, Praveen Kumar Shrestha, and others were among the famous sculptors during the shift. Nepali sculptors have begun to display their work in Nepal and international exhibitions after getting western education. This step has contributed to the modernity of Nepali sculpture. An artist erupts from beneath the roof and leads to the open air. Hence, another significant environmental sculpture marks the transition. Thakur Prasad Mainali created the architectonic sculpture Nirmāna in 2024-25 B.S. As in the relief sculpture of Chandra's equestrian statue, illustrative motifs are shared differently in the sculpture Nirmāna. This sculpture reflects a new tendency in the sculpture trend.MethodThis paper has based on observations of the environmental sculpture, theories, and concepts used for deductive and inductive methods. In one sense, Nepali secular to naturalistic sculpture has shifted to the new structuralism. The naturalist equestrian statues were brought to Nepal from Europe and some created in the native land as well. In the absence of literature on Nepal's environmental sculpture, so works of art itself, interactions with artists and previous research, articles, books, and relevant news articles were the sources. This study applied a qualitative approach to analyze the representative work Nirmāna an environmental sculpture that marked a transition in art. A monumental sculpture on native land has synthesized the modern phenomenon into sculpture.The historical background of the secular images of naturalistic solder's statues and illustrative compositions in relief are on the pedestals of the equestrian statue of Chandra Shumser Rana at the corner of Tundikhel. Besides that, the study has focused on the architectonic, thematic forms and style of modern art. In particular, this analysis focused on the Nirmāna sculpture located in the open-air environment at Bhirutimandap Garden in Kathmandu. 1. Tracing the history of modernity in Nepali sculptureModern Nepali sculpture took shape and influenced the life of people, culture, and social values encountered in neighboring countries. Nepal has been a secluded and prohibited country for a long time. The Kathmandu valley served as a gateway to India and Tibet for Buddhists and Hindus. Nepal connected Buddhists and Hindu religious pilgrims, but for others, it was a closed book. After that, in the mid-fifties, the country's border opened to the outside world.The ancient and medieval sculptures of Nepal had their style of art and culture, but the history of Gopal and Kirants is still in the dark. After Lichchavis, the Malla regime's medieval era came to power and it as regards Nepal's golden age of arts and culture. From there, Nepal had an introduction to neighboring countries. Several of the encounters involved art, culture, and economic ties, among other things. Relationships primarily influenced Nepalese art and culture. Sculptures show secular images of the donors or patrons of the religious sites. The majority of the sculptures produced during these periods were religious. Those images were not as natural as they were self reflexive and likenesses of devotional moods. Nepal had its social values and identity, but later it was connected to global concepts in art and culture.
Modern Nepal begins with Prithvi Narayan Shah's establishment of the Gorkha kingdom in the 18th century. The unification had slowed Nepal's fast-growing post-classical art tradition. Modernity, on the other hand, has had little impact. Hence, the era from Prithvi Narayan to the Rana regime could indicate the pre-modern period in the arts. However, since Ranas conquered the country in the 19th century, artists have experienced a revival or shift into naturalism in art. The European tour of Jung Bahadur in 1851 had a different impact on painting, sculpture, and architecture. Ranas brought equestrian statues and various types of artifacts from Europe to their locations. Sumina Karki (2010) further integrates that according to historian Dinesh Raj Panta, these sculptures, in addition to illustrating the evolution of Nepalese art and architecture; also depict the then-dominant art scene in the United Kingdom. Slusser's (1982) findings The Kathmandu Valley's culture has endured for two thousand years, but preserving the past is getting even more challenging each year. The country opened to the outside world in the fifteen years before 1965, when she began her research. As a result of contact with western countries, social and cultural changes have occurred in Nepal.
The significant Nepali sculptor, Ratna Bahadur Tuladhar, made a statue of a Gorkha soldier to be placed on the roof of the Military Hospital in 1925. It was the founding stone of a new mode of Nepali sculpture; Nepali sculptors had started a naturalistic trend in their native land. After 20 years, in 1945, Ramkinker Baij and Sankho Chaudhary were invited from India to make a monument to the soldiers at Tudikhel, Kathmandu. Thakur Prasad Manali and Parmila Giri received formal academic mentorship in western-modern art practice under these masters of modern Indian sculpture. Balkrishna Tuladhar, Amar Chitrakar, and others were sculptors who brought naturalist practice to sculpture.
Another transition to the modern phase of art is thought to have started in the 1960s when artists returned to Nepal after receiving advanced art education from neighboring countries. The transition's sculptors have trained in art from in and out, as in painting. Sculptors such as Govinda Narayan Jyapoo, Thakur Prasad Mainali, Pramila Giri, Sushma Shimkhada, Praveen Kumar Shrestha, Ravindra Jyapoo, Sharada Man Shrestha, and others have joined the ranks. After receiving an academic education, Nepali sculptors have started to show their works in Nepal and international exhibitions. These activities contribute to the step towards modernity in Nepali sculpture. The sculpture Nirmāna in 2024-25 B.S. is a leading environmental sculpture of the modern age in Nepal by Thakur Parsad Mainali and leads to the new tendency in Nepali sculpture (Mainali, 2061 B.S., p.48). Whereas, after eleven years, another environmental sculpture, displayed in the same area by Parmila Giri in 2036 B.S., is more abstract in form and horizontal composition.
3.1 Early significant secular sculptures:
A stone monolith excavated with the scripted stone statue of King Jaya Barma, dated 185, was found in May 1992 while preparing the foundation for a house in Maligaon, Kathmandu, according to Nepali sculpture records. This figure, dated Saka Sambat 107 (185), is thought to be the earliest pre-Licchavi sculpture and is displayed in the National Museum in Kathmandu.
From the legend of the artist Balbala, who resided in Vrishadeva's rain, (Kramrisch, 1964, p.21) discussed the first self-portrait by an artist. Later, through the ambiguous achievement of self-consciousness, the art of portraiture was created. Likewise, Araniko (1245-1306) is a well-known Nepalese artist who has produced works of art and architecture in China and Tibet. He painted two anonymous Yuan imperial portraits of Kublai Khan and his queen Chabi, which are on display at Taipei's National Museum (Jing, 1994, p.40). Nepal regards Araniko as a national icon because of his contributions. He has highlighted Nepal and China, but very few people know about the artist Balbala in our society because of the lack of enough documents and studies.Many other devotee images have been placed in the temple areas, followed by the wall of relief sculpture planks and struts of the temple. Many other devotee images have been placed in the temple areas, followed by relief sculpture planks and struts' secular figures of the temple. In one sense, devotees are devoted as self-reflections, not as realistic appearances or based on artistic experience. During the Malla period in the Kathmandu Valley, they created life-size sculptures mounted on a vertical monolith with gilded metal sculptures of the King in praying postures to the gods and goddesses. The religious purpose is seen even in secular or non-religious images at various sites. Long isolated from the outside world, particularly western art and culture, Nepalese art has changed to a realistic approach with several imported sculptures, such as Rana's equestrian states in public space. Following the Sugauli Treaty with the East India Company, new art movements emerged. That occurred after Jung Bahadur visited England, and it is considered to have marked the beginning of modernity in Nepalese art. However, Nepalese traditional art has gained popularity in the west, and the goal of art has shifted to meet the demands of outsiders.Scholars have studied one or more of the erotic carvings in the literature's various interpretations. Despite this, the vital concern is about social issues that arise from day-to-day activities and interactions like working people in the field, bathing in a public Dhara (bath), grass cutting, and other activities. The reasons for image-making may differ where carvings have employed a new canon of image-making and demonstrate their ability to express ideas or experiences freely as image-makers. They are always at the center of a patron's response to the imagination and the Medium's relationship.4. Nepali sculpture shifting to modernityIn the tradition of Nepalese sculpture, secular images make different iconographical representations located here and there in the temples with religious settings. Nepal has had its distinctive features in art and culture. The art of Nepal was based only on local culture, religion, and values. The historical and cultural synthesis of values was gradually put to the test in self-reflective arts as either a means of conveying common values such as social or spiritual unity, or later, a matter of the influence of western art. The movement is distinguished by a gradual shift in subject matter, the emergence of new styles, and the most fundamental shift in the artists' perspectives on art (Chitrakar, 2012, p.147). Nepalese sculptors also showed their sophistication before the emergence of modern Nepal after the Rana rule by incorporating their ideas into the art. After the 1960s, the artist became independent from collective obligation. At the same time, environmental art was beginning in the west.5. Contextualizing to modernity:A naturalistic depiction has been carved on the equestrian statue's pavement at the southeast corner of Tudinkhel (parade ground), in front of Bhadrakali temple. While on the base, it has pictorially highlighted the developments carried out during Chandra's reign. Figures must attempt to convey a message about life and work in that society. It has narrated the realism of the working class. These relief images show the contemporary lives and conditions of the people. In those images, tired bulls are resting, and a plowman has taken support with the handle of his plow. The Plowman looked towards the sky, as Thomas Gray's poetic line said, "The plowman homeward plods his weary way, and leaves the world to darkness and me." This extract is creating a natural status. Likewise, contextualizing western trends, Gustav Courbet painted "The Stone Breakers" between 1849 and 1850, and it is considered a work of Western social realism in painting. He has depicted in his painting two workers splitting rocks while building a road.
Hence, Rana Prime Minister Chandra Shumsher's sculpture depicts him riding a forceful horse. At the base of this sculpture, there are eight large reliefs on the wall. These realistic images have represented the contemporary lives of people, as in Courbet's painting. There has been a significant division between the two classes the ruling class and the ruled village life of ordinary people. We could conclude from these reliefs that they have tried to convey the pictorial message of the development in the reign of Chandra Shumsher Rana. Likewise, anyone can see that binary opposition at the social level at the same time. Likewise, anyone can see that binary opposition in society at the same time.In the west, classical art was part of architecture. The architectural sculptures cannot be the individual stands itself, which share the properties of the forms. The architectural sculptures cannot stand themselves, which is why they share their properties. In the beginning, western classical style architecture, like the Durbar and Garden, was done along with sculptures to enhance the beauty of the buildings. In modern thought, it could stand in a specific location, depending on the sculptor's wishes. Nature and sculpture's elements supplemented the aesthetic pleasure of the spectators. The modern garden is where nature and void spaces integrate within the image. Nepali society has adopted western social realist art forms since the Ranas. Nepalese artists also went to India for academic art training. There were western art schools that had stabilized in different cities to train art for art workers. Nepalese artists also became familiar with the new techniques and materials of modern art forms. The naturalism of western art concepts has also been carried in the pictorial narrations on Chandra's equestrian statue's relief. These contents shared some modernist characteristics with Thakur Prasad Mainali's environmental sculpture Nirmāna in Bhirkutimandap Garden6. Environmental Sculpture 'Nirmāna'A sculpture, Nirmāna (construction), was created in 2024-25 B.S. by Thakur Prasad Mainali, is an innovative milestone to develop modernity in Nepali sculpture. He incorporated folk culture elements into the built architectural form, such as Jatra's depiction of a Dhunya (a bamboo flag-pole) and others. The sculpture represents one of his first modern monumental works in open space. Following that, the naturalistic trend in sculpture immediately shifted in nature as modernity and an expression of the same. The movement begins with the monumental sculpture, Nirmāna placed at Bhirkutimandap Garden. In previous writings, Mainali cites Nirmāna sculpture as the first monumental sculpture to step into modernism in Nepalese sculpture (2053, p.43) (Mainali, 2061a, p.13). He has also demonstrated a descriptive outline of that sculpture. Furthermore, he has described separately in different subtopics as thematic images and ways that have been incorporated into the sculpture by the sculptor. Laya's narrative explanation has included sculpture-like architecture, health, education, transportation, law, peace, security, culture, industry, irrigation, and ropeway.Conventional sculpture exists and, we do not question it. It did not understand the formation of space until the twentieth century. The formalistic sculpture has been characterized by only mass, gravity, and volume since prehistoric times. However, modern art states the concepts of openness and honesty, as well as weightlessness and emptiness. Gabo's constructivism denied the solid mass and believed in plasticity by building hollows and using transparent materials. Sankho Chaudhary's attempts were along these lines (Parimoo, 1975, p.63). Sankho received his education at Santiniketan, where he got first exposed to sculpture through Ramkinker's work, regarded as India's father of modern sculpture. When Mainali was studying in Broda, he was also aware of Chaudhry's new and experimental works.The main influencing properties are the ability to change and interactivity. As a consequence of the effects of industrialization, a paradigm change resulted. Bicycles, ropeways, cars, and planes are all examples of new forms of transport. It permitted previously unseen speeds (as in the futurist movement) and particular urban encounters all of a sudden. Artists started to envision sculptures that began with space rather than the human body as their preliminary step. New theories of space did not motivate the significant step forward in progress from sculpting objects to molding space. Models made of textured non-wires, wire, and plaster in the late 19th century inspired artists scientifically. Free spaces, empty spaces in-between spaces, mirror light, shadow spaces, simulated data spaces, and sound spaces are all themes in the relationship between sculpture and spaces. A Shikhar-style architectural framework made up of suspended synthetic figures is permeable and inviting to walk through. Between the images in this Nirmāna sculpture, space transfers the emphasis to the environment's movements. As time became the primary influence, the figures and geometrics formed serpentine cuboid lines that moved the outline contours towards the pinnacle. The act of penetration is what gives birth to the artwork. The title Nirmāna refers to a dynamic sculpture, Mainali tricks in a dancing movement to geometric form floating freely above the ground in elegant stability. With each new path carried by the moving clouds in the sky, they continue to surprise viewers. They have a beautiful game involving physical processes. Mainali has built an architectonic net of construction and geometric segments in space. It shifted from being a drawing resource to a sculpting source. It becomes an independent work of art, whether it is a rigid geometric shape, angular curved, juxtaposed with organic figures, or multi-part, and it will network as a bold line in space.Figures in the extent walk through a void that is continually redefining space. It gradually gets more transparent and apparent until it perfectly merges in with its surroundings. Mist droplets sprinkle from the petals' nozzle and environmental influences generate a sculptural feature of spontaneous negative space inside the surrounded pillar-like base. Emptiness, or void, becomes a central feature in the creation of negative space within the sculpture. Space, according to the sculptor Mainali, is the product of mixing volume and void.`The opposite binary of figures to geometric volume and the void in space are both the same. In sculpture and negative space, the conceptual and experimental content of the negative space dominates real life. The void water fountain, electric power, and shadows are some of the devices used. The sculptor focused on the importance of both the intangible shadow and the actual thing in the construction of Giacometti's monumental sculpture 'The Palace at 4 a.m.' (1932-33) (Read, 1964, p.144). Furthermore, by expressing the intent and impact of a surrealist sculpture, read clarifies the sculptor's claims (p.158).
Similarly, in Mainali's sculpture, geometric construction in space supports the figures with complex mechanisms that serve little function in terms of context but are slightly disturbing to the eyes. The images are surrealistic and exaggerated in the realm of modern sculpture. A farmer was plowing in the field where Mainali has localized the architectural setting through social activities in his composition. Significance indicators such as social and economic growth, vehicles, and industries are essential aspects of modernization. The space created as a result is nothing short of telling the true story of modern sculpture. It separated twentieth-century sculpture trends from the previous sculptural traditions.Pluralities, elongation of figures, and atmospheric effects have played into the contrast in the composition. It juxtaposed organic and geometric cuboid shapes to the void, which aided the art's purely technical development. But a good technique cannot save a false aesthetic. His compositional figures seem like elongated exaggerations with thin images of idealistic naturalism in the western tradition, using Nepalese themes to achieve a new and higher synthesis of the style. Alberto Giacometti, a Swiss sculptor, is known for his remarkable elongated figures (Finn, 1989, p.122). Stylized images by surrealists, just as Giacometti's shadow figures were based on existentialist tendencies or the theory of Jean-Paul Stare.
Mainali's sculpture construction forms are primarily socio realistic and mannerist in nature. His goal was to capture the reality of daily life rather than self-expression because he had some ideas about illustration and execution of plural meanings.
Butler had studied architecture, and his competition entry, like that of another architect-sculptor, Max Bill, had a stronger understanding of colossal scale than the others (Causey, 1998, pp.79-80). Butler's design for "Monument to the Unknown Political Prisoner" was an idea to find the best solution within the limitations of modernist design by using human figures in the construction. Figures dominated by the architectural design environment. Likewise, Mainali's sculpting style is distinctly mannerist, marked by elongated proportions of the figures, highly stylized poses, and without a single focal point. Besides, serpentine forms lead the eyes to the infinite horizon. We could compare the cylindrical images and void space of the composition with linear and poetic figures done by Giacometti. His figures drew the attention of the synthesized Mannerist and Surrealist tendencies that made him a pioneer of linear dream-like images that have been dominated by void space. Construction of the sculpture shared architectural ideas, shifting to uniqueness as Butler did.Naturalistic or realistic public art activities gradually progressed towards modernity, with secular representations such as equestrian sculptures installed in city squares and crossroads, followed by religious locations. Hu