CategoriesCultural and Religious Styles
Art of Burma
The art of Burma (Myanmar), from the temple plain of Bagan and royal Mandalay crafts to modern and contemporary painting.
No works indexed yet · 3 related artists
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About
Burma, known officially as Myanmar since 1989, has a visual culture shaped above all by Theravada Buddhism. The plain of Bagan preserves more than two thousand brick temples and stupas, most built between the 11th and 13th centuries. Among them the Ananda Temple, completed around 1105, has corridors lined with glazed plaques illustrating the Jataka tales, and many smaller shrines keep painted murals inside.
Later royal courts, above all at Mandalay in the 19th century, fostered gilded teak carving, as on the Shwenandaw Monastery, along with lacquerware built up over bamboo or wood and finished with incised designs, and kalaga hangings worked with sequins and padded figures. Sculptors carved Buddha images from white marble quarried near Mandalay. In the 20th century U Ba Nyan brought European oil technique home from London, and Bagyi Aung Soe followed a restless path into modernism. Contemporary painters include Min Wae Aung, known for images of monks, and the abstract painter Aung Myint.
Related artists
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