Ba Kyi

Ba Kyi was an early follower of the modern school of painting in Myanmar first established by Ba Nyan, but he gradually broke from Ba Nyan and began exploring Burmese Traditional culture and painting techniques.^[1][2] One interesting aspect about Ba Kyi is that his transformation from a Western-style realist and naturalist to a Traditional revivalist did not follow an easily defined linear pattern. Ba Kyi jumped back and forth between Western-style work and his Traditional painting, while also mixing the two genres in unusual combinations throughout his life. For example, his watercolor paintings in the early 1950s on the History of the Buddha (above) are clearly some of the more Traditional paintings he ever executed. They are done in bold contrasts of color with the anatomy of figures outlined in thin black lines, with almost no sfumato, as was typical of Traditional painting, but he also introduced a greater sense of anatomical proportion, Western-style perspective, shading, and a sense of movement through fluidity of line which was not typical of figurative work in older Traditional painting. In the 1960s, more than a decade later, he did a number of Western-style works of a realist and impressionist character. His murals at Yangon Airport in 1956 are intensely Traditional in their content, but the techniques in the paintings are mostly Western. By the 1970s, however, it seems that most of his work was in the revived Traditional vein.

Mural works

Ba Kyi is known for his murals, including works on the walls of the library of the Yangon Institute of Education and two murals in the departure hall of Yangon Airport, depicting scenes from Myanmar legends.

Min Naing, the art historian and painter who was a student of Ba Kyi, said of his work: "Ba Kyi has masterly control of lines and colour and with a few strokes of pencil or brush he makes a picture come alive. His lines are bold and his colours are lively and he can with his art convey his theme with great clarity. But his technique is purely Myanmar, so the configuration of his pictures tends to be graceful and elegant. No other artist excels him in Composition and Rhythm".^[4]

Synopsis of his popular appeal

Ba Kyi was a simple and unassuming man, who led a quiet life.^[4] He lived in a rather large house in a prominent warren of Yangon, and it may be said that he was financially solvent and successful as an artist. A number of his paintings were given to foreign dignitaries as gifts of state, and in this respect he served as a kind of "ambassador" of the arts for Burma, regardless of regime, democratic or military, for his Traditional-style works had broad appeal across the Burmese spectrum.^[1] Other of his paintings hung conspicuously in hotels or venues such as university or public libraries, where Burmese could easily see them. His Neo-Traditional revival of Burmese painting arrived at a time when the Burmese, free of colonialism, were in sore need of reaffirming their national pride and zeitgeist.^[1] His works often expressed a broad, and even bawdy, sense of humor, much appreciated by ordinary Burmese but sometimes criticized by intellectuals if the subject of his painting was considered too serious for humor.^[1] His cartoon drawings for children books and magazines were very famous in the 70s. He taught Burmese history and Buddha life through his drawings to young and old. Ba Kyi became a lecturer at the

• National Museum of Myanmar
• Singapore Art Museum
• Tropical Museum Amsterdam
• Tatmadaw [Defense Services] Museum, Yangon
• (Yangon) Universities Central Library

See also

• Ba Nyan
• Frank Brangwyn

Notes

Further reading

• Ranard, Andrew (2009). "The Rangoon School in the Post-War Period: Status Quo and a Traditional Revival". Burmese Painting : A Linear and Lateral History. Silkworm Books. pp. 199–213.
  ISBN 978-974-9511-76-3
  .

• "U Ba Kyi _ Buddha Diary Pictures". Retrieved 2010-11-13.^{[permanent dead link]}