Modern Burmese Painting According to Bagyi Aung Soe

Rangoon-based artist Bagyi Aung Soe (1924-1990) has been regarded by fellow artists as a pioneer of modern art in Burma. Influenced by precepts practiced at Rabindranath Tagore's Śāntiniketan, he elaborated an original painting approach and style synthesizing diverse artistic approaches, which neither adhered exclusively to the European or Burmese artistic tradition nor regurgitated twentieth-century Western artistic innovations. Despite his renown within Burma, his idiom remains little understood both within and beyond Burma because of a lack of awareness of his motivations and their context. This article attempts to elucidate Bagyi Aung Soe's interpretation of modernity in Burmese painting, and with reference to his works and writings, examine the modernity of his art.