When we speak of “contemporary art” in the Nepal Art Now project, this term carries a purely temporal significance rather than referring to an artistic genre – it simply means art created over the last fifty years. Made in close collaboration with Nepalese artists and art historians, the choice of pictures, sculptures and installations reflects the variety of what could as it were be created on any single given day, ranging from purely abstract works to seemingly naive works in the vernacular tradition.

For observers from outside, modern art in Nepal from the 1950s onwards appears to stand between the twin poles of East and West... (but) to the artists in Nepal, the death-knell of Western dominance appears to have sounded. Artists in Nepal work for themselves and for those who share the same cultural background. They work only for those of us who are interested in their work, and certainly not for a globalized art market.

If these works from Nepal do not automatically speak to the Western viewer via their cultural metaphors, or if there is need for an explanation of the social or political circumstances in Nepal that are the subject of their works, the artists are on hand to aid understanding. Where possible, they were invited to write the descriptions of their works themselves, to decode their works and describe their local references and global interests.

excerpted from " Nepal Art Now; East, West, World (Art)" by Christian Schicklgruber