As one gets older, memories of past times and old friends tend to fade, but they also become more important as milestones along (to resort to cliché) life’s busy highway. An inventory of my modest art collection recently brought this home to me, as it prompted recollections of my early days in Burma (as Myanmar was then known).
I was posted to the Australian embassy in Rangoon (now Yangon) as Third Secretary in January 1974. I lived in Burma (as Myanmar was then known) for two and a half years, leaving in August 1976. I did not fully appreciate it at the time, but I was there during a period of considerable movement in the local art scene, which I first stumbled across by accident, but later came to embrace.
The main reason for my developing interest in this subject was my friendship with Sun Myint and his two sisters, Tin Tin Sann and Khin Myint Myint. All three were very talented artists, who together had a major and lasting impact on the local art scene. I also became good friends with another noted Burmese artist (and author), Ma Thanegi.
Not long after my arrival in Rangoon, I was invited to dinner by the diplomat I was due to replace. He wanted to give me an opportunity to inspect the bungalow on Monkey Point Road (now Thanhlyet Soon Road) where I was to live during my posting. It had originally been built for the manager of the oxygen gas factory nearby, and consisted of two bedrooms and a kitchen/laundry surrounding a large open plan living/dining room.
This design was well suited to the tropical climate and to the lifestyle expected of a national representative. However, the large open area, characterised by high ceilings, broad archways and white walls, seemed to me rather stark and empty. When I remarked on this fact, my host explained that he had covered the walls with paintings by local artists, but they had already been packed away in preparation for his return to Australia.
It was then that I decided to search for suitable artworks of my own to decorate the house, liven up the atmosphere of the main living areas and provide me with some original souvenirs of my first overseas posting.
Please click here to read the full “Memories of Burma’s art scene in the 1970s” article published at New Mandalay, written by Griffith Asia Institute Adjunct Professor Andrew Selth.
