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> artists >
MaungAw
> Biography |
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For more than a decade, his paintings have shone with colours that are typically Maung Aw's. The luminosity of his palette captures the tropical sunlight and its essence remains in his paintings.
Not surprisingly, his works are catching the attention of international art collectors. He stands as one of the most sought-after painters from the newly emerging Myanmar art world, a star in his own right, in his own light. |
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Maung Aw is a painter who captures light with the tip of his brush and freezes movement within the boundaries of his canvases. He sets aggressive colours against one another and somehow they meet in peace. In his hands, the tropical hues and glaring sunlight reflect tranquility rather than unease. He is able to hold Nature in his fingers and turned its concepts around, and still retain harmony with it.
It did not begin this way, once he was a studious pupil of Nature, but he feels that years of it freed him to step beyond the bars of reality. It is his unique talent that, at the same time he gave reflection of reality that is true nature in its depths.
He studied under the late Grand Master of arts U Thein Han, who taught many years at the prestigious State School of Fine Arts, Yangon. Maung Aw, however, un consciously revived the old tradition of an apprentice/son working with the master, when he first took evening classes at U Thein Han's house and six months later, moved in.
"By that time I'd graduated from Mawlamyaing University with a major in Burmese and I was working at the Burmese Language Commission." Maung Aw said. "My salary was not high, and although I could easily feed myself, renting a place to live was something else and I had to move out of free lodgings offered by a friend as they were selling. I asked U Thein Han if I could stay a few days before I found a place, and he told me to stay as long as I wanted. You see, he and his wife have a son but the boy was still very young, like ten or so. I became a son to them, turning over two-thirds of my pay, and looking after them, helping with chores etc. as a true grown-up son would. The 'few days' turned into five years and I only left when I got married. I learnt so much from him, I was asking questions all the time. I think he was glad there was someone to ask them.
U Tehin Han's legacy of intense study of nature gave Maung Aw the confidence to step away from the accepted form of realism into one uniquely his own. As the months went by his eagerness to explore the qualities of colours became slowly apparent in his works. His landscapes pulse with life and allow the viewer to smell the ripening rice and feel the breeze rushing over the grass. The flowers in his still-lifes are anything but still: petals tremble on the point of falling off and roses perfume the air. His human figures are frozen in an instant of time and makes one think they would walk out of the canvas at any moment.
Maung Aw lives in Yangon, Myanmar. Written by Ma Thanegi.
Born in Myanmar in 1945.
Studied under Art Master U Thein Han
Myanmar Art Exhibitions
1988-2004 GV Art Centre Regular Shows, Yangon
1989 Artist U Thein Han Memorial Art Show, Yangon
1989 Korean-Myanmar Joint Art Show, Yangon
1979-1989 Gardener Art Show,Gangaw Village Art Show, Yangon
1976-1978 Rangoon University Annual Art Shows, Yangon
International Exhibitions
2008 People & Landscapes of Burma, Karin Weber Gallery, HK
2007 Turban Kids, Karin Weber Gallery, HK
2006 Luminous Light, Karin Weber Gallery, HK
2003 Contemporary Burmese Art, New York, USA
2002 Contemporary Burmese Art, New York, USA
1995 Myanmar Fair, Singapore
1992 Group Show, Canberra, Australia
1991 Group Show, Canberra, Australia
1990 Group Show, Canberra, Australia
Auctions
1999 Goodwood Park Hotel, Singapore | |
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