Ba Nyan ( my, ဘဉာဏ်, ; 1897 – 12 October 1945) was a Burmese painter who has been called the greatest name in modern painting in

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

. His oil paintings were quiet and academic in their style, but display occasional flashes of virtuosity and brilliance in bold,

impasto ''Impasto'' is a technique used in painting, where paint is laid on an area of the surface thickly, usually thick enough that the brush or painting-knife strokes are visible. Paint can also be mixed right on the canvas. When dry, impasto provide ...

brushstroke and skillful handling of the medium.

Early life

Ba Nyan was the fourth of six children, born in

Pantanaw Pantanaw ( my, ပန်းတနော်မြို့ ) is a town in the Ayeyarwady Region of south-west Myanmar. It is the seat of the Pantanaw Township in the Maubin District. It is the hometown of former United Nations Secretary-General U Th ...

in 1897. He displayed his talent for painting at an early age, and for four years studied the skills of applying color and painting traditional motifs under Po Maung. He was noticed by the

Maubin Maubin ( my, မအူပင် ) is a town in the Ayeyarwady Division of south-west Myanmar. It is the seat of the Maubin Township in the Maubin District. The population as of 2021 was 51,542. The inhabitants of the town, as well as the distric ...

district officer who persuaded the government to support him in studying at the Norman School in

Mawlamyaing Mawlamyine (also spelled Mawlamyaing; , ; th, เมาะลำเลิง ; mnw, မတ်မလီု, ), formerly Moulmein, is the fourth-largest city in Myanmar (Burma), ''World Gazetteer'' south east of Yangon and south of Thaton, at th ...

under Saya Ba Lwin. He was then appointed assistant drawing master at the Yangon High School.

Success

The Burma Art Club, founded in 1913, assisted in the development of Burmese artists, and in 1921 helped him go to the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It o ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. Later he moved to the Yellow Door Fine Arts School, where he received personal instruction from the artist

Frank Spenlove-Spenlove John Francis Spenlove-Spenlove (24 February 1864 – 20 April 1933) was a British landscape and figure painter. Life and work Spenlove-Spenlove was born in Stirling, Scotland. He painted in both oils and watercolour, and was a member of the Roy ...

(1867-1933). He returned in 1925 full of enthusiasm about western oil painting techniques, and began depicting the Burmese countryside in the style of conservative British landscape artists. In 1928 he went back to London, and on this visit became acquainted with the famous muralist Sir Frank Brangwyn and the head of the Royal Art Academy, Sir William Rothenstein, who helped him to take part in art exhibitions. He also met King

George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Qu ...

in person, after he had saved one of the king's relatives from drowning. When he returned to Burma in 1930, his experience in London had earned him a formidable reputation and he was able to mount one-man art exhibitions and received various commissions from the government and wealthy patrons.

Back in Burma

In 1935 he married Sein Khaing. In 1939 he became principal of the Art School for Myanmar students. In 1944, during the Japanese occupation, Ba Nyan led a group of artists that opened an Institute of Art, becoming the principal of the academy with

Ba Kyi Ba Kyi, FRSA ( my, ဘကြည် ; 17 July 1912 – 15 April 2000) was a well-known and prolific Burmese artist. He was initially trained in western painting, but in the post-World War II independence period, he initiated a revival of Traditio ...

and San Win as instructors. During this period, the war-time prime minister of Burma, U

Ba Maw Ba Maw ( my, ဘမော်, ; 8 February 1893 – 29 May 1977) was a Burmese lawyer and political leader, active during the interwar and World War II periods. Dr. Ba Maw is a descendant of the Mon Dynasty. He was the first Burma Premier ...

, traveled to Japan on official business and presented two of Ba Nyan's paintings to Kuniaki Koiso, the Japanese Prime Minister, and a third painting, a landscape of the Shwedagon Pagoda, entitled ''Night of the Shwedagon'', to Emperor Hirohito. By those who saw the last painting, it was considered one of Ba Nyan's most powerful works. Presumably, it is still in the Collection of the Japanese Imperial Household. Another masterpiece by Ba Nyan is his oil painting ''U Ba O'' (1933) of his father, done with heavy use of ''

chiaroscuro Chiaroscuro ( , ; ), in art, is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to achi ...

'' and

techniques, on permanent display in the National Museum of Myanmar.

Legacy

Ba Nyan played a key role in introducing western techniques to Myanmar artists. He also had a significant influence on the manner in which teaching was handed down in Burma for he retained the master-apprentice form of instruction, which had always been a feature of the older more Traditional schools of painting in Burma. Ba Nyan taught six pupils full-time who lived with him in his home: Aye Maung,

Thein Han Thein Han ( my, သိန်းဟန်, ; 1910–1986) was a major Yangon painter of the post-World War II era who produced a number of memorable works and who had an abiding influence on the evolution of the more conservative painting styles in ...

, Thein Tan, Myat Kyaw,

, and

Aung Khin Aung Khin ( my, အောင်ခင် , 13 February 1921 – 14 May 1996) was a Burmese painter who became prominent in the Mandalay art world. He is well known as one of the foremost and earliest of modernistic painters in Burma. Training ...

, in that order, although Myat Kyaw's period of study with Ba Nyan was short. As Myat Kyaw's interest in painting was in the commercial rather than fine-art vein, Ba Nyan sent Myat Kyaw for further study to

Ngwe Gaing Ngwe Gaing ( my, ငွေကိုင် ; 1901–1967) was a Burmese artist who worked in both oil and watercolor. After the death of his teacher Ba Nyan, he was recognized as the greatest living painter in Myanmar. He had great influence on t ...

, whose interest in the early years was in commercial work.

, and

became major painters of Burma, and Myat Kyaw, if not a major painter of Burma, became a major figure and force in the Burmese painting community.

and

Bogalay Kyaw Hlaing ''Bogalay'' Kyaw Hlaing ( my, ဘိုကလေး ကျော်လှိုင်, ; 28 September 1914 – 13 April 1996) was a Burmese artist. Due to his mastery of the technique of painting clouds, he was sometimes called "Cloudy Kyaw Hlai ...

studied with Ba Nyan on an ad hoc basis; but there is no question that Ngwe Gaing's three or four years of studying with Ba Nyan on weekends had a large influence on Ngwe Gaing, who became regarded as the leading painter in Burma after Ba Nyan died.

Aung Soe ''Bagyi'' Aung Soe ( my, ဗဂျီ အောင်စိုး ; 1924–1990) was a Burmese painter renowned for his modernistic, semi-abstract art, which caused such a shock in Burma when it appeared that many called it "psychopathic art". ...

also received some exposure to Ba Nyan while both of them were at the Institute of Art during the Japanese occupation period (above), but Aung Soe was very young then, barely 20, and their time together at the Academy was very short. As Aung Soe's path as an intensely modernist (abstract) painter, or as a painter in the Traditional mode, shows no clear influence of Ba Nyan, it is strictly speculation to wonder of the effects Ba Nyan may have had on Aung Soe.

His death

Ba Nyan died on 12 October 1945, shortly after the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Museum and Library Collections

National Museum of Myanmar The National Museum of Myanmar (Yangon), ( my, အမျိုးသား ပြတိုက်), located in Dagon, Yangon, is the major one of the two national museums for Burmese art, history and culture in Myanmar. Founded in 1952, the five- ...

Singapore Art Museum The Singapore Art Museum (Abbreviation: SAM) is an art museum is located in the Downtown Core district of Singapore. It is the first fully dedicated contemporary visual arts museum in Singapore with one of the world’s most important public co ...

* (Yangon) Universities Central Library

Notes

Bibliography

* * {{authority control 1945 deaths 1897 births Burmese artists People from Ayeyarwady Region 20th-century Burmese painters Burmese people of World War II