ART-BURMA: Exiled Artist Paints For Democracy

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Soe Myint

NEW DELHI, Dec 15 1998 (IPS) - Burmese artist Sitt Nyein Aye, who has lived in exile in India for the past 10 years, paints for the pro- democracy movement which is stifled in his home country.

“I feel I am a gardener…I want to give my knowledge and art to the Burmese pro-democracy youth who lack support,” he says. Well known in Burma where he had his own art gallery in Mandalay, he now lives on the assistance provided by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in New Delhi.

The UNHCR recently cleared him for resettlement in Canada, but Sitt has not made up his mind about leaving India. He wants to stay here close to other activists fighting for democracy in Burma. “I cannot live without doing something (for the democracy struggle).” he says. “I have to do something, either painting in thoughts or in reality.”

Sitt’s paintings proclaim bold political statements on canvas. ‘High Soaring Birds’, done in exile has white doves soaring above a Chinthe, the ubiquitous guardian symbol of Burmese temples, to reflect the aspirations of pro-democracy activists, he says.

‘Sobs of Kant-Kaw Flowers’ is on the neglect of education by the military regime in Burma. The universities there have been closed for the last three years, and the blooming Kant-Kaw trees appear to be weeping over the death of learning.

Sitt, 40, has been involved in politics since his student days. When he was in his early twenties, he changed his name to Sitt Nyein Aye – which means “war and peace” – after reading Leo Tolstoy’s classic novel.

He was detained for one month by the Burmese authorities of the then so-called socialist regime because of his drawing in a calendar printed in memory of those who died in the crackdown on student demonstrators in 1974.

His deep love for his country and hatred for the military regime caused him to flee to continue his fight for democracy. Apart from organising exhibitions in India and abroad, Sitt continues to assist the cause of democracy with his art work including helping various publications of exiled Burmese democracy groups.

Sitt says his determination to fight inequality and discrimination was born from his experience at the prestigious State School of Fine Arts in Mandalay, where he was the poorest of poor students, often finding himself without paper or pencil to draw.

Born into a poor family near Pagan, in Upper Burma, he was one of six children and got into art school with a state scholarship. It was at the art school that he also found his two teachers, U Aye Kyaw and U Khin Maung, both leading artists of Burma.

By the time he turned 30, Sitt had become a commercial success, opening his own art gallery in 1984 where he sold 200 of his works before a major fire gutted the gallery the same year – but his heart was not in commercial paintings, he recalls.

It was with the spontaneous People’s Uprising in 1988 that he transformed into a political artist.

Says activist Jaya Jaitly, general secretary of Fernandes’ Samata Party who has known Sitt in exile in Delhi: “There could be many better artists in Burma … but very few like Sitt who left the country for his belief in democracy.”