28 Facts About Ba Zaw

Ba Zaw was an early Burmese artist born in Thayet and raised in Mandalay who mastered western painting.

Ba Zaw was born to a well-known silversmith by the name of U Kyin who was awarded a gold medal by a British viceroy of Burma.

Ba Zaw attended St Peter's High School in Mandalay and then entered Judson College in Rangoon in about 1911 or 1912.

Judson College later merged with University College to become Rangoon University in 1920; thus, Burmese sources often mistakenly or casually claim that Ba Zaw attended Rangoon University although the university had not yet been established when Ba Zaw was a college student.

Ba Zaw's health was frail, and he subsequently fell ill, quit his university studies, and took a job as an art instructor at St Paul's High School in Rangoon.

The history of Ba Zaw's early training as a painter is a patchwork of contradictory claims.

Ba Zaw was one of the earliest Burmese members of the club, and he picked up much from its lectures.

Ko Ko Naing and Amar's claim that Ba Zaw was self-taught is accurate in the sense that Ba Zaw was self-taught to a degree.

Ba Zaw won scholarships or painting competitions when he was a youngster before he encountered Ba Ohn, Saya Chone or British painters.

Wiles and adds that Ba Zaw was friendly with Wiles.

Ba Zaw came in contact with the work of the Australian painter Jesee Jewhurst Hilder some time after Hilder's death in 1916.

Ba Zaw was an artist of high standards who was often critical of his own work and touchy and short-tempered with friends.

Ba Zaw loved romantically only once, but on the eve of his marriage to the woman, the lady died.

Ba Zaw is often quoted hand-in-hand in Burma with Ba Nyan because the two painters were the earliest Burmese artists to receive formal, academic education in Western-painting.

Ba Nyan was a student with more practical aims, whereas Ba Zaw was adept at art history and theory.

Ba Zaw graduated easily from the school in three years with an ARCA, apparently not studying oil painting there.

Ba Zaw's discovery of Flint's works may have occurred while he was in London, where Flint was a painter of repute, later becoming president of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours from 1936 to 1956.

In London Ba Nyan had mastered the arts of oil painting and gouache, while Ba Zaw, who had remained at the Royal College of Art, refined his techniques in watercolor.

Ba Zaw was a Mandalay painter and his major protege was Saya Saung, who lived part of the year in Rangoon and part of the year in Mandalay.

Two additional Ba Zaw pieces emerged in Burma in the years after 2000.

The location of Ba Zaw's etching works, inside or outside of Burma, is not known.

Ba Zaw made a large impact in Burma in the art of cartoon, his works appearing in Thuriya magazine.

Ba Zaw began drawing such art in the 1920s, and became a teacher to the Burmese cartoonist of note, Hein Soon.

In 1930 or 1931, the Teachers Training College opened in Rangoon and Ba Zaw was chosen as the art lecturer there.

Ba Zaw accepted the position but had to give it up when he had a stroke while painting at the Shwedagon Pagoda in the year given as 1932.

Ba Zaw was unable to handle his duties at the Teachers Training College, and his position there was taken over by San Win.

Min Naing mentions that Ba Zaw became chairman of the Burma Art Club in 1933, adding that Ba Zaw was forced to give up this position due to his stroke.

Ba Zaw lived on for almost ten more years, struggling to paint but mentally impaired.