Dharahara, Kathmandu
Kathmandu's beloved nine-story tower, painted before it fell in 2015 — and since rebuilt.
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About this work
Bhaktapur Durbar Square is one of the Kathmandu Valley's great royal squares — centuries-old temples and palaces, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Pradeep Gautam painted this watercolor in 2014, working in watercolor and colored pencil to hold the square's red brick, carved wood and temple roofs in the light he remembered.
On April 25, 2015, Nepal's devastating earthquake reduced much of the square to rubble in under a minute. As the artist wrote at the time: most of the buildings and temples in this painting are "now only in the history." That is what gives this work its weight — it is not only a painting of a place, it is a record of heritage that was lost, made by an artist who grew up with it.
It anchors the Nepal Series, his signature collection of paintings of home — the Dharahara tower, Pashupatinath, Fewa Lake and the Annapurna trails — painted from Nepal, and now from Austin, Texas, where he lives.
