Creation in Isolation: The Life and Career of Bagyi Aung Soe

Works from his last years are especially spectacular: Burmese alphabet, Pali mantras, the Buddha’s profile, magical squares (called “in”) and references to numerology, all represented alongside each other in striking shades of ink and “magic pen”. Not only is the iconography never before seen in painting, the style and technique are equally original. The essence is Buddhism as it is practised in the country.

Indeed, material limitations did not stop Aung Soe from creating; it led him to greater heights, to invent his unique method and style of colored inks on paper, while expounding the linear tradition of Burmese aesthetics, and the calligraphic features of the Burmese script. Whether it was on the backside of calendars, on scrap paper or a fresh piece of paper which a sympathetic fellow artist or student had presented as a gift, Aung Soe drew and painted relentlessly.

It is said that the internationally renowned Indonesian artist Affandi, who Aung Soe knew from Shantiniketan, called on his Burmese friend when passing through Rangoon around the year 1962. In a different context, one might imagine Aung Soe achieving similar recognition, possibly even international fame. But for Aung Soe—whose genius was his ability to draw strength from his position of isolation—such distinctions were trifling.

Aung Soe’s works are monologues which discourse on the objectives of the modern Burmese artist of the 20th century: to assimilate foreign influences without renouncing cultural identity; to accept the challenge of contemporary Western art whose values contradict the very essence of local artistic traditions. In other words, to imitate neither the Western nor the Burmese, but to invent a new idiom rooted in one’s origins—a task which preoccupied the Japanese artists of the Meiji period and the Chinese artists in the first third of the 20th century.

Aung Soe’s stance on artistic creation was clear: never would he sacrifice his vision—the “painting of impermanence” or “new painting” (as he termed it)—for the least public approval or official recognition. He cared neither for his reputation nor for material rewards: art alone was his raison d’?tre.

Countless younger talents continue to produce impressive works in isolation. Aung Myint, Khin Maung Yin, Po Po and Nyein Chan Su, to name a few, are today creating art in conditions of penury and solitude.

It is certainly tempting and understandable for artists today to betray their artistic judgment by ceding to the demands of the growing art market. But to preserve the integrity and future of Burmese art, it is hoped that the existing pool of talent would aim to develop original artistic idioms which speak to the international audience without forsaking their Burmese origins, to blossom in the spirit of independent creation in spite of trying socio-economic conditions.

Let us not forget Bagyi Aung Soe’s lesson: perseverance by drawing on all available resources in tumultuous times. It is now time to piece together his monologues so to appreciate his dissertation. It is time to review the pertinence of his work.

Yin Ker works on contemporary art and Burmese painting.