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Racing
Against
Time
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 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
realize my dreams now.”
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