Bagyi Aung Soe, “Painting of the New Era: Amrita Sher-Gil”, in From Tradition to Modernity, Yangon: Khin May Si Sapay, 1978, 86-94.1
86 The Art of Amrita Sher-Gil At the beginning of the Christian era, Indo-Greek nations were in Gandhara in the northwest of India. The Indo-Greek princes, rulers of those nations, once believed in Buddhism. With the help of Greek and Indo-Greek technicians, they made many stone and concrete [sic] sculptures of the Buddha and the events of his life. They were legendary sculptors in the history of art because of their distinct and influential Greek style. Until the last 50 years, that Greek art was… 87 … considered unparalleled. There was no beauty like their aesthetic appeal. But criteria always shifts. Indian art was also widely and thoughtfully critiqued. It was discovered that the Buddha images in Gandhara in India were inspired by the Greek sculptures of Apollo. The eyes and irises of the images have the characteristics of mixed race. In comparison with the purely Indian works from the Gupta period and beyond, those images seem quite different. As Hellenistic art (Greek art) and that of India are different in their basic concepts, we cannot expect them to merge seamlessly. The movement of populations began 2000 years ago and can still be seen today. After the British colonised India, schools of Western art opened. Then concepts and styles of Western art were imposed onto Indian art and sculpture. Indian art practices were suppressed in the 19th century, but no other strong and powerful new art form has emerged. 88 In that situation, the renovation of Indian art based on the ancient art of India was initiated in Bengal thanks to Abanindranath Tagore, Nandalal Bose, Gaganendranath Tagore, Bingatappa Ginma [?], Niroy [?] and others who led that movement, etc. Traditional art regained its former glory because of them, but later artists could not keep up with the momentum of these great men, and it went into decline. One artist who demonstrated the importance of integrating traditional ideas into modern works is Miss Amrita Sher-Gil. Her works were a signal and reminder to create more distinct 1
This translation only conveys the gist of the article, not all the nuances. The Burmese term meaning “painting of the new era” [art; Burmese: eခတ$သစ$ ပန္းခ်ီ] is generally understood as “modern painting” and “modern art” in Myanmar. Bagyi Aung Soe, “Painting of the New Era: Amrita Sher-Gil”, in From Tradition to Modernity, Yangon: Khin May Si Sapay, 1978, 86-94.
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AungSoeillustrations.org