Newa art[1] is the art form practiced over centuries by Newa people.

The pictorial art consists of:

• Paubha[2]

Vasudhara Mandala, by Jasaraja Jirili, Nepal, dated 1365.

Nepali art is as old as Nepali culture despite
is as old as our a music, painting,
performance and installation. At the then tim
learned, and.

e, , for instance, in Mithila art even today.

.
Building elements like the carved Newar window, roof struts on
temples and the tympanum of temples and shrine houses exhibit
traditional
from Realism to Abstractionism, public to
personal, objective to subjective.  Nepali
artists began to explore their inner self rather
than representing external objects and
events. traditional religious art, Newar artists have been at the
forefront in introducing Western art styles in Nepal. Raj Man Singh
Chitrakar (1797-1865) is credited with starting watercolor painting in
the country. Bhaju Man Chitrakar (1817–1874), Tej Bahadur
Chitrakar (1898-1971) and Chandra Man Singh Maskey were other
pioneer artists who introduced modern style paintings incorporating
concepts of lighting and perspective

Nepali art is as old as Nepali culture despite the

fact that we can only find the sculptures of fourth
century A.D., the point of time in Lichchhabi
period. This period is considered as the golden
age of Nepali art. From the quality of these
exclusive artworks we can deduct that Nepali art
was much older than that. Likewise, the
travelogue of the seventh century’s Chinese
ambassador mentions that there were beautiful
wall paintings on the houses of Kathmandu valley
despite the fact that the earliest Nepali painting
ever found is the Prajnaparamita manuscript
illumination. Our culture is as old as our
civilization, and our art is a constituent part of our
culture. Our cultural rituals and festivals integrate
a number of arts as sculpture, music, painting,
performance and installation. At the then time, art
was not for art’s sake but for life. Art had spiritual
as well as pragmatic value. We can find this trend,
for instance, in Mithila art even today.

Newar art is basically religious art. Newar have

learned the past and absorbed the
contemporary, now they are attempting to
unlearn the rules and formulae what they had
learned, and hearing their own inner voice,
creating their own codes and putting their own
signature in subconscious manner. Listening
to oneself and expressing in one’s own visual
language is perhaps one of the best ways of
creating art.devotional paubha painting,
sculpture and metal craftsmanship are world-
renowned for their exquisite beauty.[4]

As Nepali art developed, it crossed a number of

stages. We can find the shift from religious to
secular, objective to subjective, external to
internal, others to self, referential to abstract and
so on. Earliest arts and architectures were
symbolic. They depicted something but signified
something else. They have didactic values, that is,
they teach moral lessons. As they are religious,
they are mystical and magical. The deities and
human figures always have youthful body even in
death bed. The artworks are anthropomorphic in
the sense that even the divinities are in human
form and express human emotions. The early
forms of Nepali paintings are manuscript
illumination, paubha, mandala, pata (narrative
scroll painting) and wall painting. Pagoda temple,
Shikhara style temple, stupa and monastery were
the examples of architecture.