9 – 30 November 2024
KIN MAUNG YIN (1938-2014)
ARTISTE EXTRAORDINAIRE
One of the three second-line leaders of modern art in Myanmar, and someone whose works and personality wielded a lot of influence on many artists, is Kin Maung Yin, born 1938.
The two first line leaders U Kin Maung (Bahn) of Mandalay and Baji Aung Soe of Yangon were the path finders and had other followers but it was the Paw Oo Thett-Win Pe-Kin Maung Yin trio that made a strong impact on the young painters of the 1960s and ’70s who were eager to expand their art beyond the boundaries of skilled realism.
Led by these three, and in spite of Socialist restrictions on creativity and lack of art materials, a strong modern art movement had emerged by the late 1960s. Now, with Paw Oo Thett passing away in 1993, Win Pe migrating to the United States, Kin Maung Yin alone remains contentedly working in Myanmar.
His dedication to his art, his commitment to his creativity and his utter lack of interest in materialistic profits remains unchanged.
His initial profession of an architect was never far from his art. After graduating from the University of Rangoon, he worked for almost a year for an organisation on Dacca, Bangladesh. By the end of 1962 he was back in Yangon, painting fulltime, sometimes accepting architecture commissions so that he could buy art materials.
After his returned from Dacca he had joined an architectural firm of Architects Incorporated, usually known as A1. He lived on the premises of the office at the corner of 24th Street and Strand Road. About the same time Paw Oo Thett and Win Pe came down from the old royal capital of Mandalay. Fate drew them to the same place, for a writer introduced Paw Oo Thett to one of the architects. The three formed a bond that was to last until POT passed away.
Beginning in 1963 they began to hold solo or group exhibitions just for the three of them, sometimes joined by other artists. However in these early years of the 1960s until almost the late 1960s, only the names of the three emerged and their works caught the imagination of the younger aspiring painters and art students. In those days it was extremely difficult to present a public art show and most of the earlier exhibitions were privately held in the homes of interested locals or foreign diplomats.
In the narrow world of Socialism, modern art found it a struggle to survive. Although it was not banned there were attacks of it being decadent, accusations thrown by the State propaganda machine. However all art shows needed to be scrutinised first by a censorship board. Paintings that were not done realistically often raised suspicions as to its ‘inflammatory’ content and needed explanations of its ‘meaning.’
Strident accusations of decadency or worse, of comparing non objective art to ‘smears of faeces’ came from the left-leaning, conservative literati who also screamed similar accusations at modern poetry.
However, creativity could not be banned nor progress stopped in its tracks and by the late 1990s contemporary art has been well established.
All through these difficult decades Kin Maung Yin, without a murmur of complaint (if he indeed noticed anything amiss), steadfastly continued to produce art.
He said that in an earlier period he was very much influenced by Modigliani, and hints of this influence could be seen in a few of his figures and portraits. Although he claimed a later devotion to Pollock, the influences of Modigliani remained, not in the human figures but in the purity of colours. In this he seemed to have gone beyond the art of his role model, for Kin Maung Yin is best known for his use of pure, pristine and translucent colours. His scenes of Bagan, landscapes and sunsets verge on the brink of abstract art; his brush swirls and skims and dances as his colours shimmered and glowed on canvas.
Kin Maung Yin’s art is an extension of his soul: one of childlike wonder for the universe, amazement at the beauty of life, an unconscious overflow of sincerity, simplicity and an innocence that few artists ever found…or harder still, retain.
(Text by: Ma Thanegi)
