13 Facts About Ba Kyi

Ba Kyi, FRSA was a well-known and prolific Burmese artist.

Ba Kyi was initially trained in western painting, but in the post-World War II independence period, he initiated a revival of Traditional painting, borrowing from the Western training he had received as well as his own cultural heritage of painting styles and techniques.

Ba Kyi was born on 16 July 1912 in Kyaikhto, and took up painting at an early age.

Ba Kyi attended Rangoon University where he gained an Intermediate of Science and a Teachers Certificate.

In 1939, when the State School of Art and Music opened, Ba Kyi became an art instructor there.

Ba Kyi was able to exhibit two of his works in Paris at 162e Exposition, Societe des artists francais, Salon 1949, and in art shows in London and Monte Carlo.

One interesting aspect about Ba Kyi is that his transformation from a Western-style realist and naturalist to a Traditional revivalist did not follow an easily defined linear pattern.

Ba Kyi jumped back and forth between Western-style work and his Traditional painting, while mixing the two genres in unusual combinations throughout his life.

However, there is considerable similarity between the style of Ba Kyi's mural painting and that of Brangwyn in the muscular depiction of figures.

Ba Kyi's lines are bold and his colours are lively and he can with his art convey his theme with great clarity.

Ba Kyi was a simple and unassuming man, who led a quiet life.

Ba Kyi taught Burmese history and Buddha life through his drawings to young and old.

Ba Kyi became a lecturer at the Yangon Institute of Education, teaching there until his retirement in 1974.