The ‘Galapagos Islands of Art’

The dilemma faced by successive generations of artists has been to mine that seam without creating a cliché out of specializing in the most immediate aesthetic source—landscapes and temples. Burma has produced, and continues to discover, outstanding landscape painters—including The Irrawaddy’s Harn Lay—but it’s left to artists like Than Aung to dig further in search of aesthetic meaning.

His work is still relatively unknown outside Burma., a fate shared by so many highly talented contemporary Burmese painters. The publication of “Burmese Painting” should raise the level of international interest in these neglected artists by creating a pictorial and textual record readily accessible for collectors and enthusiasts of fine art everywhere.