New Vistas for Burmese Artists - Travel
Kyee Myintt Saw, a Burmese artist, joked as we chatted in his sweltering studio on the ground floor of a laundry-festooned building in Yangon, the largest city of Myanmar. But for many in this society traditional Buddhist, his plea would not be funny. Although impressionistic oils of scenes seen Mr. Market is selling like hot cakes in a local gallery, his passion is painting the human body. Nu.
"Our Buddhist culture can not accept nudes," said Saw, a teacher of 72 years, ancient mathematics, perched on a chair in the oil layers of lushly beautiful naked. "In your country, students studying the human form of art school. I think in this broader artistic knowledge. "
Mr. Saw is not the only artist to venture into new creative territory Burma these days. Thank you to reinvigorated local galleries, an influx of international visitors and the Internet, artists are emerging from Myanmar decades of isolation caused by a military government and international sanctions, which over the years have stopped economic growth and creative impeded cross-pollination with the outside world. Although the military is closely monitoring public life, it appears, based on conversations with local artists and business people, the atmosphere is becoming more open to outside influences.
On an exploration of the local art scene in Rangoon last year, I found a few days to visit contemporary galleries and studios provided something much deeper than the Myanmar pagoda-traditions and tourist trail: a chance to engage with contemporary culture and the people of this fascinating, complicated country.
I started with the Museum of Fine River six years in the annex to the colonial era Strand Hotel. On the way, shook my taxi from the Shwedagon Pagoda, a mountain of gold shimmering mirage through sheets of rain of the monsoon, and rough streets lined with large government buildings dilapidated. Inspired by the local population, I removed my sandals before leaving the water to the ankles in front of the entrance to the river side of the gallery. Within the space high, the walls were hung with generous work figurative and semi-abstract.
"Art is a wonderful way to understand this country," said Gill Pattison, the New Zealander who has transplanted New Gallery. "Although the subject remains largely traditional, there is often more a painting than meets the eye, "she added, referring to a landscape with gold saturated pulse, purple and orange by the artist Zaw Win Pe. "For example, colors such as red can be an outlet for those passionate emotions culturally or politically banned in everyday life."
Although River Gallery is easily accessible, Yangon other serious galleries are mostly run by artists with a limited budget and around the city in office buildings or residential areas. Thus, on the advice of Dr. Pattison, I hired an English speaking guide who booked a taxi, traced our route and called in advance to ensure gallery owners would be available.
But wait for the next gallery visits, because I needed to recover the flight before dawn on the morning of northern Myanmar, where I spent a few days at the historic site of Bagan, flashlight in hand, exploring the genesis of the paint on the walls Burma temples and monasteries built by the former Burmese kings, their courtiers and other patrons of the 11th to 13th centuries. Considering the lack of government protection, it seemed miraculous that these early paintings Burmese, using natural pigments to illustrate scenes from the life of Buddha, had not collapsed.
In fact, it seems that the Burmese artists, like artists everywhere, have largely prospered or withered over the centuries under the patronage, the prevailing winds and trade policies with external influences. Andrew Ranard, a journalist who was on the market for emerging art of Burma in 1994, wrote of a "Galapagos Islands of art, where styles have evolved into fixed forms." In his book, "Painting Burma," he writes that modernist painting had died after a brief period of experimentation in the 1960s and 70s, mainly due to a lack of local support. This led to a flowering a realism, naturalism and impressionism - the "fixed forms" that is still evolving in Myanmar.
This legacy, combined with a leaning toward culture and avoiding controversy by insisting on acceptable images as Buddhist monks and markets, would calmly to the visual arts in Myanmar, even though there was no censorship policy, according to Aung Aung Taik, a Burmese artist who lives in California. "Painters learn the technique excellent, but there is no Allen Ginsberg in the Burmese tradition," he said.
Perhaps the closest country's response to the Beat generation is 64 years old, Aung Myint, who defied convention to express his vision experiments. Mr. Myint, who has had exhibitions in Asia and Europe, was the first artist to win a prize Burmese at the prestigious Art Prize of ASEAN in 2002.
"Our Buddhist culture can not accept nudes," said Saw, a teacher of 72 years, ancient mathematics, perched on a chair in the oil layers of lushly beautiful naked. "In your country, students studying the human form of art school. I think in this broader artistic knowledge. "
Mr. Saw is not the only artist to venture into new creative territory Burma these days. Thank you to reinvigorated local galleries, an influx of international visitors and the Internet, artists are emerging from Myanmar decades of isolation caused by a military government and international sanctions, which over the years have stopped economic growth and creative impeded cross-pollination with the outside world. Although the military is closely monitoring public life, it appears, based on conversations with local artists and business people, the atmosphere is becoming more open to outside influences.
On an exploration of the local art scene in Rangoon last year, I found a few days to visit contemporary galleries and studios provided something much deeper than the Myanmar pagoda-traditions and tourist trail: a chance to engage with contemporary culture and the people of this fascinating, complicated country.
I started with the Museum of Fine River six years in the annex to the colonial era Strand Hotel. On the way, shook my taxi from the Shwedagon Pagoda, a mountain of gold shimmering mirage through sheets of rain of the monsoon, and rough streets lined with large government buildings dilapidated. Inspired by the local population, I removed my sandals before leaving the water to the ankles in front of the entrance to the river side of the gallery. Within the space high, the walls were hung with generous work figurative and semi-abstract.
"Art is a wonderful way to understand this country," said Gill Pattison, the New Zealander who has transplanted New Gallery. "Although the subject remains largely traditional, there is often more a painting than meets the eye, "she added, referring to a landscape with gold saturated pulse, purple and orange by the artist Zaw Win Pe. "For example, colors such as red can be an outlet for those passionate emotions culturally or politically banned in everyday life."
Although River Gallery is easily accessible, Yangon other serious galleries are mostly run by artists with a limited budget and around the city in office buildings or residential areas. Thus, on the advice of Dr. Pattison, I hired an English speaking guide who booked a taxi, traced our route and called in advance to ensure gallery owners would be available.
But wait for the next gallery visits, because I needed to recover the flight before dawn on the morning of northern Myanmar, where I spent a few days at the historic site of Bagan, flashlight in hand, exploring the genesis of the paint on the walls Burma temples and monasteries built by the former Burmese kings, their courtiers and other patrons of the 11th to 13th centuries. Considering the lack of government protection, it seemed miraculous that these early paintings Burmese, using natural pigments to illustrate scenes from the life of Buddha, had not collapsed.
In fact, it seems that the Burmese artists, like artists everywhere, have largely prospered or withered over the centuries under the patronage, the prevailing winds and trade policies with external influences. Andrew Ranard, a journalist who was on the market for emerging art of Burma in 1994, wrote of a "Galapagos Islands of art, where styles have evolved into fixed forms." In his book, "Painting Burma," he writes that modernist painting had died after a brief period of experimentation in the 1960s and 70s, mainly due to a lack of local support. This led to a flowering a realism, naturalism and impressionism - the "fixed forms" that is still evolving in Myanmar.
This legacy, combined with a leaning toward culture and avoiding controversy by insisting on acceptable images as Buddhist monks and markets, would calmly to the visual arts in Myanmar, even though there was no censorship policy, according to Aung Aung Taik, a Burmese artist who lives in California. "Painters learn the technique excellent, but there is no Allen Ginsberg in the Burmese tradition," he said.
Perhaps the closest country's response to the Beat generation is 64 years old, Aung Myint, who defied convention to express his vision experiments. Mr. Myint, who has had exhibitions in Asia and Europe, was the first artist to win a prize Burmese at the prestigious Art Prize of ASEAN in 2002.
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