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PAGAT SUNSET... by Mar Lar, watercolour on paper
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| DRAMATIC... ‘The Musician’ by Zaw Zaw Aung |
By Ooi Kok Chuen
A STREET musician, an old woman enjoying a puff of cheroot – these are among the aspects of life in Myanmar captured on paintings to be exhibited at Kuala Lumpur's Parkroyal Hotel on Nov 18-19.
The artists featured include Zaw Zaw Aung (15 pieces), Hla Han (11 pieces), Tin Maung Oo (13 pieces), Mar Lar (five pieces) and Moat Thone (seven pieces). Moat Thone is organiser Andrew Ranard's latest discovery.
Ranard set up Benson Fine Arts in Singapore in 1994, dealing exclusively in contemporary paintings from Myanmar.
It held its first exhibition at the Westin Hotel in Singapore in June last year and the second Tresors international art and antiques fair in Singapore in September.
“Burma's young artists have technical mastery, but they paint from their heart. Their work has an undiminished, universal impact which conveys the mystery of the soul,” says Ranard, whose interest was kindled when he inherited a painting by 70-year-old Aung Khin on his mother's death in 1993. His father was a diplomat who served in Myanmar during the 1960s.
His curiosity turned into a passion when he discovered the rich vein of talent there despite the closed environment.
He first met the artist Min Wae Aung on his tour of galleries, mopping up all 15 works he had with him. Then he meet Zaw Zaw Aung, Min Wae's tenant and protege.
“Min Wae possesses technical brilliance and classical restraint, but Zaw Zaw is more dramatic, more emotional,” recalls Ranard.
Zaw Zaw is a master portrait painter in the Realist mould, but with the sensitivity and flourish reminiscent of Bartolome Murillo, the Spanish artist noted for his portrayals of street-life personalities like little wastrels and the downtrodden.
His oil, “The Musician”, is in the Murillo vein, striking a melancholic chord on the lot of the mendicant-like music maker who is using bamboo to eke a living.
His “Burmese Woman With Child” is a lively contrast of the generational difference bound by an intimacy of caring.
Zaw Zaw studied under 82-year-old U Kyaw Hlaing, who in turned studied under U Ba Nyan (1897-1945).
U Ba Nyan was the first Myanmar artist to be sent to study in England, at the Royal College of Art no less. No wonder he was dubbed the "father of Western-influenced painting" in that country.
Born in 1897 in Maubin district, U Ba Nyan returned in 1924 and started teaching many artists at his studio and also at the Burma Art Club.
U Ba Nyan was later awarded a second trip to England and he used the opportunity to travel to other parts of Europe and held several exhibitions.
Zaw Zaw, who graduated from the School of Fine Arts in Yangon, is only 30, and had his first exhibition in a church in Yangon in 1993.
Also trained at the Yangon School of Fine Arts are Tin Maung Oo and Zaw Min, both 46, and Moat Thone, 39.
Zaw Min, who also came under the tutelage of U Lun Gwye, is noted for his cover illustrations and in 1993 took part in an exhibition at the Nexus Gallery in the United States.
His works touch on the ethnic charms of various composite groups in Myanmar, highlighting the clothes and culture.
Tin Maung Oo has been exhibiting his works since 1973, mainly in Myanmar, but his first international solo came only this year, at the Nobel Gallery in Singapore.
Moat Thone exploits the fluidity of the watercolour medium to capture the beauty of a translent world. He uses thin washes with uncanny restrain where the images are blurry and without configurations.
There is also a child-like quality about his works.
Like Thailand, art development in Myanmar up to the middle of the 19th century was Buddist in nature, mostly dealing with its ornamentative iconography for religious buildings and enumerating the life and struggles of Gautama Buddha. (However, it was not until 1961 that Buddhism became the State religion.)
The Western influence in Thai art started even as early as King Mongkut's reign when there was a lot of interaction, and reached its peak during the reign of King Chulalongkorn.
In Myanmar, European artistic tradition was introduced with colonialisation at the tail end of the last century, but there seems to be a recognisable division of styles with Upper Myanmar falling under French and Italian influence, and Lower Myanmar the British.
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ETHNIC CHARM... An oil on canvas titled ‘Burmese Dancer’
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Still, not much is known about Myanmar art although it has a longer tradition than that of Malaysia. In 1914, there was already a Burma Art Club.
But Myanmar does not have a Corrado Feroci (who is better known by his Thai name Silpa Bhirasri) who made a great impact in sculpture and painting on modern Thai art.
Said Ranard: “It is fully documented that two well-known British painters, Sir Gerard Kelly and Dalbot Kelly, travelled to Burma in the early part of this century and left a strong impression on Burmese artist.”
But he said it would be an exaggeration to say that the British played a large part in shaping Myanmar's modernist art.
The exhibition preview is from noon to 7pm on Nov 18, and from 10am to 2pm on Nov 19. The auction, organised in conjuction with Victor Morris (Auctioneers) Singapore and JS Valuers Property Consultants Kuala Lumpur, will start at 3pm.
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