‘Without Being Mad it’s Impossible to Paint!’

Kiran Manandhar is a simple man but a great artist/painter. Born in Kathmandu (1957), Manandhar has obtained Master in Fine Arts from faculty of visual arts, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India during 1981. He had to struggle hard to achieve his passion of art because his father was against of his ardour. His father was a chief mechanic who aptly wanted Kiran Manandhar to be an engineer.

Recalls Manandhar during a special interview, ‘I ran away from home to India with less money and experienced tough to get the admission in the college. But my dreams towards colour was too strong; after all I could achieve my goal. I was unable to become an engineer because my mathematics was inferior.’

A full time painter, Manandhar recently served 4 years as chancellor at Nepal Academy of Fine Arts; at this time preparing for a solo exhibition going to be organized in December 4 at Nepal Art Council. After the exhibition in Kathmandu he is on the wing to France for another solo exhibition. He is busy crafting new shapes, polishing the due artworks far from the crowd at his gallery in his own residence.

Manandhar has performed dozens of solo and group exhibitions in Nepal and abroad.

Socially very active artist Manandhar is popular enough among even youths because of his modesty and inspiring persona. He full heartedly encourages the young artists and other creative people. His smiling face, it seems like, he has no stresses at all. But he confesses, ‘my life is full of thorns and I love it. I have learnt the art to channelize the misery of life into the creation and stay cheerful.’

Those critics, who have seen his works, often define him as Nepal’s Picasso. And he deserves the element. He paints like a machine. The speed in his artworks is extremely high. At times, he mixes colours like clouds. After all he does his works from the core of his heart. He seems to be born for colours and shapes. In the prose of the prominent artist, ‘I am born to be an artist, nothing more or less.’

Manandhar recognized his passion and skills of arts and sculptor since early childhood. He was not that much fond of going school and escorting the traditional education; rather, in his own words – he considered woods, rivers and railway stations as his universities. ‘The artist cannot be made by mere learning,’ avers Manandhar, ‘he or she should metaphor the talents with the nature by means of mind and heart.’

‘What is art?’
‘Art is life!’ was his answer in a soft deep voice. The artist was speaking among his hundreds of thousands of art works with tremendous honesty and vigour; he added, ‘I struggled hard to get done an artist within me. But I claim misery leads you towards high creativity at the same time struggles carve the creativity. As my life has been full of thorns, I still consider myself a highly fortunate one because I could experience enough desolation during my struggles to get established as an artist!’

Currently, he is full of activity with painting in the theme of POWER. ‘I sense POWER everywhere. Either it is interior or exterior,’ says the giant in a humble voice, ‘whenever I begin my paintings, I would love to lit organic incense and prepare the environment to be whitewashed by POWER around.’

This very idea of the artist seems like inviting the Holy Spirit and being guided through. Some western artists influenced their working environment through their own weird style of inviting the spirit during creation.

‘I become fully mad while painting,’ he digs more deep to reveal being an enigmatic painter, ‘without getting mad how I can craft a beautiful painting? If I plan and craft, it goes something usual, which does not content my soul. I seldom plan before painting.’

‘Mad?’ the question was on a low volume.
‘Madness and creativity escort together,’ he simplifies the term, ‘unless a person is not mad enough, he is unable to create. Every creative people around the world are Schizophrenic to some extent. Madness is freedom. But my meaning of madness dictates the exploration of subconscious realm; I don’t mean madness as walking naked in the market. I denote for a creative madness.’

Majority of his art works give the impression of Surrealism and that is Kiran Manandhar – a spontaneous artist! He said that most of his computer arts were destroyed by him. Because, he narrates, ‘I was spoilt to go mad in digital arts. When I get ready to paint by a brush over a canvas – I am bound to go mad. Unless going mad, I am unable to paint.’ He justifies further, ‘as a matter of fact, art is an imagination, not arithmetic! I could fly in any length during my imagination and get mad!’

He asserts, ‘my madness is to enter the mysterious realm of subconscious mind and play with colours, brush and canvases quite freely.’

‘Why do you paint?’ was my almost final question.

‘If I don’t paint; i remain incomplete.’ Replies the veteran artist, ‘I feel soulful while on stage with colours. But I still would love to ask myself – why do I paint? And without expecting any answer, I begin mixing colours for another new creation. Artists are like water, they should keep flowing.’

His emission shapes and vibrant colours over canvases are enlightening. His energy, speed and enthusiasm are poignant. He is a master of jotting the feeling down with colours and shapes. Sloth does not exist in the dictionary of artist Kiran Manandhar. It seems like he was born to mix different colours and forming enigmatic shapes.

Moreover he says, ‘there are merely two colours: black and white; just like birth and death. As there are variations between birth and death in life; so there are many other colours between black and white.’