Nepalese Political Drawing (1940-1970). Traces of Irony against the Panchayat System

Abstract

Through the visual representation of the national icons of the mountain, the King, and Kathmandu´s Cultural Heritage, Nepalese contemporary art is defined as a tool that contributes to romanticize the idea of the country as a magical Shangri-La. This article analyzes the idea of contemporary Nepali drawing through the concept of Nepaliness as a national strategy promoted in the times of the Panchayat regime (1962-1990). In a process that hybridizes the Western realism with the local culture, the aim of the regime was to unify the multicultural essence of Nepal around a single culture built around itself. The Nepalese avant-garde used the Nepaliness in their art-works in an almost forced way, being the irony the sole medium through which these artists could find a gap for their self-expression against this dictatorship.