Chandra Man Singh Maskey
Contents Part One 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………….. 3 Catalogue of exhibition held at Hotel Vajra, Kathmandu ……………………………………….. 5 Bio-data of Chandra Man Singh Maskey ………………………………………………………… 7 Recollections by Ruth Smock of Chandra Man Maskey …. …………………………. ……… … 9 Article - The Rising Nepal, April 5th, 1980 …………………………..……………………………11 Un-attributed article …………………………………………………………………………….. 12 Extract of article: Published in Arts of Nepal, 2011 ……………………………………………... 14 Pencil, pen and ink drawings ………………. (Nos: 1 to 48) .…. ………………………………... 16 Part Two
8. Pencil, pen and ink drawings continued .….... (Nos: 49 to 76) ………………………………….. 3 9. Oils and Watercolours ………………………(Nos: 77 to 110) …………………………………. 13 Part Three 8a. 9. 10. 11.
Sketches on cloth ….………………………...(Nos: 111 to 114) ……………………………...… 3 Oils and Watercolours ………………….…....(Nos: 115 to 185) .…. …………..………...…....… 5 References …. …………………………………………………………………..………...…….. 57 About the Author …………………………………………………………..……………........… 61
© Photographs by David K. Barker Cover design: Pema T. Domingo-Barker Note: At the time of the photography most of the art works presented in this document were in the possession of Chandra Man Singh Maskey and all rights belong to the artist and his heirs. 2
Chandra Man Singh Maskey
1. Introduction Chandra Man Singh Maskey, 1900 to 1984: Knowledge and familiarity of his considerable body of work exist only in a small group within
partially due to the exposure of both artists to the British-funded school of art in Calcutta and particularly to the influence of his teacher, P.C. Brown.
the Nepali population. In view of his subsequent impact upon Nepal it was
Both returned to Kathmandu after their training. Here their journey
considered time to expand this population with greater exposure of his art to
began with experimentation and expressive work in areas beyond the formal
a wider audience.
portraiture and royally commissioned portraiture.
In 1984, resulting from work with Arts of Asia, (Hong Kong) and the
Although both artists came from within traditional social milieus
article in the issue of July – August 1984 by Maskey’s son Jagdish Chittrakar,
that ranked low in the caste system, it was Maskey who faced severe
“The Contemporary Movement in Nepalese Art” the inspiration for a
punishment at the hands of the Rana regime. During his prison term of
publication on the life and work of his father, Chandra Man, began.
originally eighteen years, then shortened to five, he continued to create his
Regrettably, due to relocation and other constraints this idea of a
works using strips of his own clothing, torn into fragments. Some of these
publication did not materialise. As time passed, the concept became
works are contained in this document. Due to the passage of time, some of
dormant.
the fragments were extremely difficult to photograph to gain their real
Now it is considered appropriate and timely to re-open the idea and assemble the collection of photographs into a portfolio that records the majority of Chandra Man Singh Maskey’s work through pencil, pen, watercolour and oil.
intrinsic value. However, their inclusion serves to illustrate that the mind of Maskey was alert and imaginative throughout his period of deprivation. Probably his most outstanding work began in the early Fifties and this continued through the Seventies and Eighties. His pioneering exhibition
The series of 180 plates represent approximately 90% of his work.
in 1928 was the first-ever in Nepal for an individual’s works of art. This
Those located or exhibited in museums and private collections would
represented a turning point in the Nepali contemporary art movement.
increase this number, possibly quite considerably. The majority of the
Throughout his accomplished life, exhibitions were held in Kathmandu,
insertions in this portfolio remain untitled.
Moscow and elsewhere - with several of his works now in the hands of
Why is Maskey’s work crucial to Nepalese art? It was Maskey and
overseas museums and collectors.
Tej Bahadur Chittrakar (1900 - 1981) who initiated the movement away from
“From an accomplished court painter and an artist in conventional
the existing Nepali art of royal patronage and portraiture into
genres like formal portrait and landscape painting, he turned to the
uncompromising classic modern European style art. This movement was
remarkable work which has earned him the Chronicler of Nepali folk life and
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Chandra Man Singh Maskey
culture.” (Rising Nepal, April 5th1980). His artist’s eye followed a mastery of
For Maskey, art was collaboration with nature rather than a rebellion
everyday scenes of rural Nepali culture and life from crop cycles to
against her being. His unique focus has made him a pillar of contemporary
celebrations and worship. He has captured a timeless palette of colours,
Nepali art. Maskey’s prolific work will continue to serve as a model,
characters, objects, paintings-within-paintings and nature themes that one
inspiration and trailblazer for students and art aficionados both in Nepal and
might still find in present day Nepal. It may be said that the traditional
elsewhere. This portfolio, it is hoped, will form part of the heritage
themes served as a counterpoint to the royal portraitures capturing details
preservation of Maskey’s talents and his contributions to a Nepalese art
and elements more akin to the greater components of the population.
identity.
Significant works not included in this document are marble statues and an extremely large oil painting several metres in length at Singha Durbar in Kathmandu, and those in museums in Moscow and the collection at St. James Court in London. This portfolio includes textual items that illustrate and follow his life. These contributions by Ruth Smock, Rising Nepal, Susanne van der Heide in the Contributions to Nepalese Studies (CNAS) Journal and Arts of Nepal, and the Exhibition Catalogue of 1981 elaborate further upon Maskey and his life. In addition to his considerable abilities and skills as a noteworthy artist, Maskey was in his heart a teacher and mentor spending many years at the Durbar High School and the Padma Kanya Girls High School and as a founding member with his friends of the first University in Kathmandu in 1957. As Director of the National Museum, Director of Archaeology, National Zoo, and Chairman of the Nepal Association of Fine Arts, his contributions were considerable.
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Evelyn Domingo-Barker and David Barker
Chandra Man Singh Maskey
1. Exhibition Catalogue – printed on handmade Nepali paper
2. Exhibition held at Hotel Vajra P.O. Box 1084, Swoyambu Bijayaswori Kathmandu, Nepal CHANDRA MAN SINGH MASKEY The October Gallery October 14 – November 7, 1981
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Chandra Man Singh Maskey
Exhibition held at Hotel Vajra, P.O. Box 1084, Swoyambu, Bijayaswori, Kathmandu, Nepal CHANDRA MAN SINGH MASKEY The October Gallery October 14 – November 7, 1981 Bertold Brecht has said: ‘Every art contributes to the greatest art of all the art of living. The simplest way of living is in art.’ Maskey’s work is simple, straightforward, without entangling itself in complex psychological meaning yet with a subtle impact. “You see I am a man of nature, of truth and sincerity. Show man as he is sincerely. “We must be free,” says Maskey about his work. In his portraits the sophistication in technique with which he reveals the individual inner nature of the person shows him to be not only a masterful painter, but perceptive and truthful in his execution, showing the essence behind the personality. He is able to capture the unique quality and beauty in each person, or as Prof. Kamal Prakash Malla has said “…. depth and purity of sympathy for his subject”: the innocence of his first wife who died after six years of marriage at the age of 22, the warmth and kindness of his second wife, the hope of Ganga Lal and the determination of Dasratha Chand both great martyrs hung in Maskey’s presence for so called political acts against the Rana Regime, to mention a few. 6
His paintings and drawings from life, although containing vast historical and religious meaning are presented simply, free from moralistic or even idealistic pronouncements. In the painting of Prithivi Narayan Shah, one sees a handsome warrior with his colourful retinue overlooking the valley he is about to conquer. Prithivi Narayan Shah was not doubt handsome, his retinue colourful, the valley beautiful, the day sunny. The day as it was, as it should be. The event as it was and should be. One could say idealistic and romantic, but here one sees life as it is free from the reactions to it, free from the judgement of good or bad, great events do happen quietly. Life is our social and historical events. All is in order, nothing is out of place, neither the joy nor sorrow, neither the pain and suffering nor the exuberance. Maskey’s life has not remained untouched by suffering. He has seen the tragedy of his first wife’s death. He has seen his friends hung and imprisoned. He himself spent five years of an eighteen year sentence in prison with all his family property confiscated by the Rana Regime for opening the first public school, tearing his clothes for pieces of canvas, painting the illustrations to his companion poems, keeping each other sane by continuing to work. He has seen the birth and death of kings, the bloom and withering of the great Bengal School of Art. He saw Nepal’s first university opened in 1957 by himself and friends close after only six months.
He has also seen the joys: he was the personal art tutor to the Royal Family, Director of the National Museum, Director of Culture and Archaeology, Director of the National Zoo, Adviser of Nepal Association of Fine Arts, and Chairman to the Advisory Board of Nepal Association of Fine Arts, Royal Nepal Academy. Like his work he has remained simple, neither bitter not proud. Life has its own order and man has his dharma. This is the impact of his work. The fundamental idea in his paintings is that the key to life is living: creating, working, feasting, worshipping, loving, and even conquering. It is simple, natural, and truthful. Signed. M.M.E.
Chandra Man Singh Maskey 1964
3. Bio-data 1900 1918-1923 1923 1928
1940-1945
1947 1951-1963
1957
Born in Kathmandu Studied art at the Government School of Art, Calcutta under P.C. Brown Received Diploma in Paintings from the College of Arts and Crafts, Calcutta First One Man Exhibition ever to be held in Nepal. Was private tutor to the Royal Family, and taught drawing and painting at the Durbar School and Padma Kanya Girls High School. Sentenced to prison for eighteen years, five of which he served, for opening the first public schools during the Rana Regime, which he called Ram Vidya Ashram Resumed teaching at Padma Kanya Girls High School Director of Nepal National Museum, Department of Culture and Archaeology, and National Zoo. Opened the Popular University of Kathmandu Adviser of Nepal Association Fine Arts (NAFA). Chairman of Advisory Board of Nepal Association of Fine Arts, Royal Nepal Academy.
One Man Exhibition of Paintings, Lal Durbar, Kathmandu Third National Art Exhibition, NAFA, Kathmandu One Man Exhibition of Paintings on occasion of his birthday of 78 years. Inaugurated by Her Royal Highness Princess Shanti Singh at Royal Nepal Academy Hall, Kathmandu One Man Exhibition of Paintings, Fronjey, U.S.S.R. One Man Show Exhibition of Paintings at Hotel Vajra, Bijayaswori Exhibition of Paintings of Mr. Maskey at Cultural Department of USA Embassy, Ravi Sri Path, Kathmandu.
1966 1975
1976 1981 1983
1937 1950 1958
One Man Exhibition of Paintings, Kathmandu Art Exhibition, Bhugol Park, Kathmandu Darjeeling Art Exhibition, India One Man Exhibition of Paintings Moscow, U.S.S.R.
3. 4. 5. 6.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
1936 1937
Tribhuvan Silver Jubilee Medal Shree Nepal Industrial Exhibition Medal Gorkha Dakshin Bahu Paropakar Society Silver Medal, Coronation Silver Medal Indra Rajya Laxmi Prize, Royal Nepal Academy Tribhuvan Memorial Gold Medal Coronation Medal Silver Jubilee of Bhima Rathnardhen Exhibition of Mr. Maskey organised by SKIB and YAG Kathmandu
1954 1958 1958 1966 1973 1975 1976
Special Works 1. 2.
Life Study of King Tribhuvan in sculpture and paintings Marble stone sculpture of Late King Mahendra and Queen Mother Ratna at Mahendra Park, Balaju, Kathmandu
Marble stone sculpture of Maya Devi and Lord Buddha at Lumbini Garden, Nepal Bronze statue of King Mahendra at Royal Nepal Academy Stone sculpture of Ramchandra, Sita, and Laxman at Saptari Dist, Nepal Nepali architectural design of City Hall at Birgunj, Nepal
Collection(s)
Awards
Exhibitions 1928
Singha Durbar State Hall, The Hunting Birds of His Highness Juddha Shumshere, Nepal Royal Palace, Nepal Moscow’s Oriental Asian Fine Arts Museum, U.S.S.R. Private collections in Nepal, India, China, Japan, U.S.A., West Germany, England, U.S.S.R. King Tribhuvan, His Highness Juddha and other paintings, Kirigwa, Fronjey, U.S.S.R.
List of Paintings and Drawings 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17.
King Birendra Queen Aishwarya Queen Mother Ratna Nir Sumsher Rana Rice Planting Devotion of Parvati Angulimal Baking Yomari Chhwasa Bratabanda Ananda Kumar Chitta Dhara Buddha Spinning Thread Usha Swopna Surya Binayak Wonjala
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Chandra Man Singh Maskey 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25-27 28-32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39
Coronation of Ram (incomplete) Bhasuka King Tribhuvan Ladies Combing Their Hair A Newari Lady in Old Garment Lord Krishna Prithivi Narayan Shah Man’s Life Buddha’s Life Ram and Laxman Mr Farenda The Trail of the Political Case The Prisoner Dasratha Chand Ganga Lal Political Suffers Thirty-five various drawings
Slightly edited by David K. Barker
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Chandra Man Singh Maskey
4. Recollections by Ruth Smock of Chandra Man Maskey
When my husband and I were introduced to Chandra Man Singh Maskey, he was identified as “the best artist in Nepal.” For twelve years the curator of the Nepal Museum, he was a speaker at the Museum’s silver anniversary, which was celebrated last December twenty-second and which was the occasion of our meeting. In the tradition of patriots, Mr. Maskey’s importance is attested to by the facts that he has spent time tutoring and touring with Kings and that he has also spent time in prison. The seventh of twelve children, Mr. Maskey lives now in the house where he was born, near the famous “toothache tree.” Visiting him there at a later date, we discovered he likes the light touch, for when Harold and I ducked through the entrance, he quipped, “The reason Nepalis are small is so that they can get through their doorways.” Over tea, he gave us some of his vital statistics. “I was born”, he said seriously, “in 1957.” Harold and I were puzzled because, although it is often impossible tom guess a Nepali’s age, we knew he was a grandfather. Then he explained that the Nepal calendar year was 1957, the Gregorian calendar year, however was 1900. His love of subtlety carries over in his work. Among the paintings he showed us that afternoon was one, entitled “My Dream,” of a very ethereal but undeniably nude woman. I looked at it and then at him and commented, “Men are all alike.” He laughed good-naturedly,
then pointed out that the picture had a number of “hidden” faces among the clouds, in the moon, and in the lady’s curves, faces of people whose existence gave fulfilment to his own life.
Evidently it did not please His Highness to say whether it pleased him or not, for he commanded, “Sketch a portrait for me.” “I have no pencil, your Highness.”
As we admired a Nepal street scene by day, Mr. Maskey took it and held it against the light, and we saw that, from this perspective, it became the same street scene by night.
Shumshere signalled a guard, who produced a pencil from his kukri scabbard and handed it to Maskey. “I’m afraid I have no paper, either.”
The quality we especially admired in his portraits was his ability to capture the expression of the subject’s eyes. In 1917, Maskey’s father had shipped him – or trekked him – off to Calcutta to study medicine, but so near were the College of Medicine and the College of Art that Maskey soon found himself spending more time in the latter than in the former. Four years later, but before his studies were completed, he was called home because of his father’s illness. And when his father died two weeks after his arrival. Maskey thought his schooling was over. “Under the Rana regime,” we asked, “how were you allowed to develop your talents at all?” “It was by the grace of God and the permission of his Highness,” he answered. Some of Maskey’s paintings had come to the attention of Chandra Shumshere, the current Rana Prime Minister and builder of Singha Durbar, then his private residence. Summoning Maskey to Singha Durbar, the Prime Minister asked him abruptly, “Would you like to continue to study art?”
Shumshere did the Asian equivalent of snapping his fingers, and his private secretary produced a piece of paper. Then Shumshere rose and said he’d return in half an hour. “But of whom am I to do the sketch?” asked Maskey. “Oh yes, a subject,” mused His Highness. Shumshere’s physician also happened to be present at the time so he became the subject, and Shumshere went out for a drive. When he returned, Shumshere was so impressed with Maskey’s sketch that he sent him back to the Calcutta School of Art – no need for a pretext of studying medicine now – to study under P.C. Brown, curator of the Victoria Memorial Museum as well as principal of the government [British] School of Art. Three months later, Maskey stood second in the examinations; and in his final year, he stood first. Returning to Kathmandu, Maskey became art tutor to King Tribhuvan and to his three sons; and for a time he lived under the illusion that his future was assured.
“If it pleases your Highness.”
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Francis Bacon could have disillusioned him. Or Walter Raleigh. Or John Milton. Or others, ad infinitum. Chandra Shumshere died and was succeeded by Bhima Shumshere, who was succeeded by Juddha Shumshere. All the while the undercurrent of revolution was coming closer to the surface. Devoted to his students and to the kind of good art that is timeless, Maskey managed to stay out of politics. Or so he thought. As art tutor to the children of the British chief clerk in Kathmandu (who, incidentally sponsored Maskey in the first Fine Arts Exhibition in Nepal, at the present site of the Tribhuvan University). Maskey was inspired to educate the children of his own people, and to this end, he started the first public school in Nepal, thus arousing the displeasure of his Rana patrons. Since an informed public is anathema to tyranny, the Ranas decided they had to get rid of this dangerous subversive. Their opportunity came when an unsigned cartoon, caricaturing the highhandedness of the Rana rule, appeared in a public place one morning. It was not Maskey’s work, but no matter: here was a tailor-made opening to end his influence with the people. So he was promptly accused of being the cartoonist and arrested. Like Bacon, Maskey saw all his property – lands, library, paintings – confiscated. Like Raleigh, Maskey was convicted on trumped-up charges of high treason. Like Milton’s, Maskey’s life was spared perhaps because, among other considerations, he was a revered artist. (Providentially, when Maskey’s birthplace was subsequently sold at auction, his brother was able to buy it and, later, to restore it to him; and
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Chandra Man Singh Maskey
Maskey’s wife managed to spirit away the few books he still has). In the same Rana group of renegades, four of Maskey’s companions were hanged, and bronze statues of these martyrs now sit under the marble arch at the southern end of the Tundikhel. Maskey got off with the relatively light sentence of eighteen years in prison, of which he served five, being released in 1945 by order of Juddha Shumshere, the last Rana Prime Minister. Six years later the revolution finally succeeded, and the monarchy came into its own. Embassies were established in the Kingdom, and Maskey’s star began to rise again. The Russian Ambassador to Nepal, after seeing some of Maskey’s paintings in the Palace, viewed more of them in the same miniscule studio where we viewed them and complimented him by accepting twenty of those he viewed as a gift from the Nepal government to the Russian government. King Mahendra took Mr. Maskey with him on his 1968 tour to Russia, where Maskey did a number of Russian portraits and sketches in Moscow. Maskey exhibited at the Oriental Art Museum, where some of his paintings still hang. The rest were presented by the King to President Breslov, Chairman Krushchev, and other Russian officials. “What I hope to do still,” Maskey confided in us, “is to exhibit in the United States.” And we agreed that such an exhibition would be a fitting climax to his career as well as a pleasant introduction of Americans to the beauties of Nepal.
As we left, I meditated aloud, :I can’t blame the Russian Ambassador for appropriating twenty of Mr. Maskey’s paintings. I’d like to have all of them in my house.” Always the indulgent husband and probably with Mr. Maskey’s wish for an American exhibit in mind, Harold said, “We can. We’ll give an exhibit of his paintings if you’re agreeable.” Thus it was arranged that we show the paintings of Mr. Chandra Man Maskey on Saturday and Sunday, May 23 and 24, from two to five p.m. at Lal Durbar, #3, open to the public.
Chandra Man Singh Maskey 5. The Rising N epal, April 5 th , 1980 Saturday. Page 3. By Madhusudan Thakur Tribute To a Painter
Mr. Chandra Man Singh Maskey, the oldest and well-known master of Nepali painting, was born in April 1900. As he told me himself he has been a rebel all his life. It all began when his father sent him off to Calcutta in 1918 on his completing school, with the intention of putting him through medical school. Instead he turned to fine arts, joining the Calcutta Government Art College after his father’s death in 1920. On returning to Nepal after his graduation with distinction six years later, he was commissioned by the then Rana rulers to paint portraits of Prime Minister and Royalty, while he taught painting at his old school, the Durbar High School as also at the Padma Kanya Girls School. During these years he was also private tutor in painting to their late Majesties King Tribhuvan and King Mahendra and other members of the Royal family. He did well enough at all this and in 1928, an exhibition of his paintings was held in Kathmandu, the first of its kind in Nepal. Some of his landscapes were chosen as official gifts to court visitors from abroad and an oil painting of His late Majesty King Tribhuvan was commissioned for presentation at St. James Court in London. All this, however, did not stop the young artist from participating in the movement for the progress of education in Nepal which was then gathering momentum. Maskey fell from grace in 1940 and was sentenced to eighteen
years’ rigorous prison on trumped up charge of sedition against the government. Talking of his years in the Rana prison in a reminiscent mood, Maskey enjoyed telling me how with Chittadhar Hridaya, a fellow prisoner, he managed to hold a special puja, a ceremony of worship to Hanuman. Since the prisoners had been granted special permission for the puja for which Hanuman had to be painted with sindoor (vermillion) red and yellow colours were provided to them. This gave the artiest a chance to paint the pictures, which were later to appear in and adorn the editions of Sugata Saurabha, a long poem on the Buddha’s life which Hridaya completed during his prison years. Maskey was released in 1945 and resumed his teaching job at Padma Kanya Girls School in 1947. With the fall of the Rana government in 1950, Maskey’s services were recognised and he was made curator of Nepal National Museum, sent out on official tours outside the country as well as on delegations and was later appointed as the Director of Archaeology of His Majesty’s Government, the position which he last held before he retired from active service.
His more recent watercolours and landscape paintings reveal his preoccupation with timeless Nepal, the portrayal of elemental realities and the true rhythms of the life of the ordinary working people who sing while they toil in the fields, carry heavy loads up and down mountain trails and are seen in groups around camp fires in forests, convivial and happy. This is where his work is most truly Nepali, where his authenticity shines forth through each single brush stroke of his brush. As a critic rightly says “His works, with all their background of exotic architecture, social, ritual folklore and pictorial landscapes, are rarely self-conscious or stylized … for him art is more a collaboration with nature rather than a rebellion against her vital curves.” While on the other hand there is no room in his work for the tragic, the grim, the sordid, the ‘modernist’ rhetoric of abstract geometric and non-representational art on the other are an anthemia to him. His art is thus a triumph of tradition and the world of Mr. Maskey, in sharp contrast to that of his younger contemporaries, is very nearly idyllic and pastoral, not yet plagued by “…this strange disease of modern life, With its sick hurry, its divided aims, It’s head overtaxed, its palsied heart.
His most outstanding work as a painter was begun in the early Fifties and carried through the Sixties and Seventies. From an accomplished court painter and an artist in conventional genres like formal portrait and landscape painting, he turned to the remarkable work which has earned him the Chronicler of Nepali folk life and culture.
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Chandra Man Singh Maskey 6. Un-attributed article Similar to the inclusion in The Rising Nepal, April 5, 1980.
Born at Kathmandu in April 1900, Mr. Chandra Man Singh Maskey, the best-known artist in Nepal, was educated at the local Durbar High School. At eighteen Mr. Maskey's father sent him to Calcutta to study medicine. Mr. Maskey, however, was already keen on switching over to a course on fine arts. After his father's death, in 1920 he joined Calcutta Government Arts College. For the next six years he studied fine arts, ultimately graduating with distinction. On returning home Mr. Maskey was commissioned by the then prime minister to paint a set of seven historical portraits of the late prime ministers. Thus, Mr. Maskey's initial tour de force was in the conventional genres like the formal portrait and landscape. The fact that he excelled in both is evident in the portraits of kings and prime ministers, which still decorate the Royal Palace and state halls. In 1928 his was the first one-man exhibit to be held in Nepal. In the meantime, Mr. Maskey had produced quite a few outstanding landscapes which were presented as official gifts to the court visitors from Britain and Germany, One of his works, the life study of His late Majesty King Tribhuvan, a monumental work in oil, was commissioned for official presentation to the English Court. Another life study of King Tribhuvan still decorates the Coronation Hall. Mr. Maskey had been a private tutor in painting to the late King Tribhuvan, King Mahendra, members of the royal family and the children of the then Rana prime ministers. For a
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number of years he had taught drawing and painting at the Durbar School and Padma Kanya Girls School as well. His association with Nepal's first public school, organized to give civic education, roused the suspicion of the Rana prime minister. Soon Mr. Maskey fell from the grace of the Rana regime. In 1940 Mr. Maskey was sentenced to eighteen years' rigorous imprisonment, on the concocted charge of subversive activity. He was suspected as the author of a cartoon scandalizing the highhandedness of the Rana rulers. For the next five years behind the bars Mr. Maskey showed an unwavering devotion to his art. In the teeth of the Rana henchmen he persisted working on quasi-mythical themes. In 1947, two years after his release, Mr. Maskey resumed his work as a teacher at the Padma Kanya Girls School. With the fall of the Ranas in l95O Mr. Maskey's stature loomed large in the public eye. In 1951 he was appointed Curator of Nepal National Museum - a post in which he continued for the next twelve years. The same year he was in India on an official study tour of several Indian museums. He was the official delegate from Nepal to the All India Art Exhibition held at Darjeeling in l951. In 1958 he accompanied King Mahendra on the state visit to Soviet Union. During the visit a one-man show of his paintings was organized at Moscow's Oriental Art Museum where some of his treasured works still hang. Among King Mahendra’s official gifts to the Soviet leaders were the life studies of the Soviet leaders done by Mr. Maskey during this visit. Before retiring from\ active public service Mr. Maskey was working as Director of the Department of Archeology, His Majesty’s Government of Nepal.
With the fall of the Ranas in 1950 Mr. Maskey's stature loomed large in the public eye. In 1951 he was appointed Curator of Nepal National Museum - a post in which he continued for the next twelve years. The same year he was in India on an official study tour of several Indian museums. He was the official delegate from Nepal to the All India Art Exhibition held in Darjeeling in 1951. In 1958 he accompanied King Mahendra on the state visit to Moscow. During the visit a one man show of his paintings was organized at Moscow's Oriental Art Museum where some his treasured works still hang. Among King Mahendra’s official gifts to the Soviet leaders were the life studies of the Soviet leaders done by Mr. Maskey during this visit. Before retiring from active public service Mr. Maskey was working as Director of the Department of Archeology, His Majesty’s Government. Mr. Maskey is one of the founders of Jana Natya Parisad and Nepal Fine Arts Association. The latest one-man exhibit of his paintings was held in June 1965 at Kathmandu. For nearly four decades Mr. Maskey has been painting consistently with almost religious devotion. Within this space of time his work has gained considerable range and intensity of significance. From the conventional genres like formal portrait, sports 'saga', graphic landscape to Blakean phantasy and chronicle of the folk culture, the transition has been gradual and organic, but never tortuous. During the ‘thirties and the ‘forties Mr. Maskey was nothing if not a court painter well—versed in the conventional rhetoric of the nineteenth century photographic realism. His portraits were 'live', his landscapes
'pictorial', and his sagas 'thrilling'. The taste of his patrons prescribed not only the theme for his composition; it also dictated his style. His works, mainly in oil, revealed a cold, rigid and formal texture. These pre-war compositions showed a growing surety of touch: they were formally impeccable. Mr. Maskey's true schooling in art began, not in the college nor in the court, but inside the Rana regime's bleak prison. Paradoxically, his vision broadened behind the prison bars. In almost all his outstanding works during the ‘fifties and the early ‘sixties Mr. Maskey reveals a consistent preoccupation with the Nepalese socio-cultural milieu. In his recent watercolours he could aptly be described as the chronicler of the folk life and culture. These compositions are definitive essays in portrayal of the elemental realities and rhythms of the Nepalese life in the context of the rich local culture and the lyrical landscape. Mr. Maskey’s work is ‘Nepalese’ in every sense of the term. His success is in the definitive quality of each of his works, which enables his admirers to identify it as ‘Nepalese.’ His works, with all their background of exotic architecture, social rituals, folklore and pictorial landscape, are rarely self-conscious or stylized. In fact, Mr. Maskey is defiant in his refusal to sacrifice subject on the altar of stylistic sophistication. The avoidance of the tragic, the grim, the bleak, the sordid and the abstract is almost final in his work. For him art is more a collaboration with nature rather than a rebellion against nature's vital curves. He looks upon the
Chandra Man Singh Maskey
'modernist' rhetoric of abstract, geometric and non-representational art as a sophisticated version of blasphemy. His masters have been the classical ‘greats’ who celebrated the glories of man and nature. The appeal of Mr. Maskey's work is in its depth and purity of sympathy for his subject and in its lyrical simplicity of technique. Compared with the world of his younger contemporaries, the world of Mr. Maskey is very nearly idyllic and pastoral, — not yet plagued by ……. strange disease of modern life With its sick hurry, its divided aims, Its heads overtaxed, its palsied hearts.
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Chandra Man Singh Maskey
7. Extract of article Published in Arts of Nepal, 2011 Traditional Art In Upheaval: The Development Of Modern Contemporary Art In Nepal Author: Susanne van der Heide, Kathmandu, Nepal “A new sense of the concept of art set in Nepal; namely away from a mythic religiously motivated one towards works of art that served the ends of personal uplift and thus possessed a purely aesthetic character. The artists used new techniques: alongside gouaches, oil painting and watercolors found preferred use. Canvas and hardwoods were imported from Europe for processing. Stylistically, the idolizing, flat character which oriental influences had lent to Indo Nepalese painting was replaced by motifs conceived in a depth perspective and naturalistic in effect. Two persons grew up in these drastically changing cultural milieus who were latter to become the precursors of the developments of contemporary art. These were Chandra Man Maskey (born in 1900) and Tej Bahadur Chittrakar (born in 1900 and died in 1971). Previously, as related, there were only a few artists active in the court, those from the Newari Poon families, called in Nepali Chittrakar, which translated means painter. The efforts made by these court painters to assimilate Western artistic influences into their style of painting were
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hesitant beginnings- more instinctive than anything. Their influence on society in Kathmandu was of minimal significance only. I have previously described the subordinate social status artists in the courts of the Mallas had to put up with. This began to change during the Rana period, as is shown by that regime's support of individual talent. In this connection, the works of Maskey and Chittrakar are seen today as the turning point in the development of art in Nepal. Interestingly enough, there are many common points in the lives of these two men: they were born in the same year, both received their education in art at the same school (the Calcutta Government School of Arts), took their examination at the same time (1926) and together brought the influence of the Bengali school of art with them to Nepal. They were the first officially recognized master teachers of painting in Nepal. The various undercurrents and influences of the Bengal School of Arts left deep impressions on the two men. In particular, at the time the school was a cultural center of the Indian nationalists opposed to British. The intellectual elite of the country, for example Bose and Tagore were then active in the school. After their return to Nepal, however, the two artists found themselves caught in a conflict: namely, on the one hand, their sympathies towards the Rana regime which harbored trust for the British, and which after all financed their studies; and, on the other, their attitude, formed by their education, against the British and for
India's and Nepal's social and political independence. For all that, the impressions of the various worlds with which they were confronted -the deeply ingrained medievalreligious and the Western - did not loosen their grip on them; and so today the works of their lifetime are called by Nepalese artist themselves and I quote - " a curious mixture of social realism, historical romanticism and religious sentimentalism" (from a personal communication with the Nepalese artist Jaghish Chittrakar in 1986 in Kathmandu). Maskey's and Chittrakar's conceptions of painting were similar, but as regards their social status in Nepal, There were enormous differences between the two. Chandra Man Maskey was a member of a high level caste of the Newar community; Chittrakar, on the other hand, belonged to the previously mentioned painting family of Chittrakars, who were ranked low in the caste system of Nepal. In Nepal's traditional social order this meant for the painting families - showing obedience towards their benefactors and sources of commissioned works. Art was not thought of as a means of individual expression but served, rather, the religious- ritual claims of society. Chittrakar, having grown up with this attitude, carried such centuries- old ideas around with him, a fact expressed in his moderate and complaisant personality, as contemporary Nepalese artists testified to me. Moreover, as they said, Nepal's society of the time, still deeply rooted in the past, was not of the frame of mind to accept someone with a socially low status in a leading role, His influence was therefore more limited, having its effect predominantly on the members of his
family and those of his rank within Nepal's caste hierarchy; it did, however, greatly strengthen their sense of themselves. Maskey's background was a different one: his decision to become a painter broke with tradition: by caste he belonged to those who were used to having commands and orders carried out and not, as in the case of the Chittrakars to those who were on the receiving end carrying them out. But probably it was precisely this accustomed high rank that allowed him to have his way in the face of all prejudices, and against his own original aim of studying medicine in India, and to follow his won inclination- that towards art. To this can certainly be added the fact that the artistic movement in the Bengal School of Arts was in tune with the rebellious zeitgeist of the intellectual elite. Once he returned to the them forbidden kingdom of Nepal, he had to proceed further in the direction he had set out in, without coming completely into conflict with the social situation and his family there, his decision in favor of an art of individual expression inspired and encouraged young persons in Nepal to set themselves, too, against other time-worn social values. His example strengthened, in addition, the sense of self-knowledge of the Chittrakars in their role as painters. Their socially weak position was thereby revalued upwards: Tej Bahadur Chittrakar would never have been able to achieve this alone. Their common influence, however, undergirded a shift in values and a rethinking out of things within the caste hierarchy. Moreover, during this time that is between 1930 and 1950
Chandra Man Singh Maskey
Nepal's social order found itself in an upheaval; the influences of the Indian national movement against the British also had their effects on the oppositional Nepali students who were educated in India and professed these new ideas. They set themselves mainly against the Rana regime in its role as collaborator with the British, and for having kept Nepal for decades under strict control and behind closed doors. It was thus entirely natural that the nationalistically inspired movement which had been initiated during this period in Nepal should go hand in hand with a search for new possibilities of individual expression as in the past these had been - I don't wish to say suppressed, since that's not true , but - left unrealized, the preconditions for such being absent.
Tej Bahadur Chittrakar died in 1971; since then his works have been in the safekeeping of his family. Although the works of the two men do not differ very much in expressiveness, content and technique, still two different trends came out of them: Linking up to the ideals of Maskey, there developed in the following years a school of - I would call them - painters and sculptors uncompromisingly open to classic modern European art who increasingly ignored traditional values and moved away from naive landscape and portrait painting. Its adherents generally did not come from the Chittrakar families. The latter were traditionally still very much bound to the old values which had for centuries shaped their creative work. Thus it is understandable that around them crystallized the school of so- called conventional Nepalese art.”
Maskey's and Chittrakar's interests were in this connection the same; only the possibilities they had to fulfill them differed. In the end, this had the effect of bringing together different, slowly disintegrating caste groups and of allowing new activities to unfold. During this time the painter families began to change their names from Poon, the Newari name designating their caste status, to Chittrakar, the Nepali name for painter- this in order to distance themselves from the caste hierarchy. Maskey followed with interest the latest trends in Nepalese art up into old age. His first exhibition in Kathmandu, in 1928 - the first official exhibition ever in Nepal for an individual's works of art - represented a turning point in the direction of contemporary art. He presented his works for the last time in Kathmandu in two exhibitions in 1981 and 1983.
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8. Pencil, pen and ink drawings on handmade Nepali paper
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End of Part One:
Please see Part Two
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