Tin Tun Hlaing Sold at Auction Prices

b. 1969 -

Tin Tun Hlaing was born in 1969, in the town of Nyaung Lay Bin, in Karen State, about 100 miles from the capital Yangon (formerly Rangoon). The third of six children in the family, he started to paint at the age of 11, but did not receive any encouragement from his parents. Luckily for Tin Tun Hlaing, the artist U Than Win, who lived in the same town, became his first teacher when he was 13 years old. In 1987, he gained admission to the prestigious State School of Fine Art in Yangon and studied there for three years, graduating in 1990. Since then he has been a full-time professional artist, painting in a realist style in acrylic on canvas.

Tin Tun Hlaing is a fine example of the new generation of Burmese artists who increasingly are being exhibited and collected around the world. Working in a photo-realistic style in oil on canvas, he paints what he knows best: Burmese culture, tradition and daily life in the countryside.

Life in Burma still centers on Buddhism and the yearly cycle of seasons and festivals. Tin Tun Hlaing depicts the ubiquitous monks, novices and nuns in their white or crimson robes, carrying alms bowls and sheltering from the sun under red umbrellas. Novice monks are often shown quietly studying the Buddhist scriptures, silhouetted in a temple window, or resting in the shade of an imposing statue or pagoda. The figures are dwarfed by the imposing temple architecture, monks walking in file against a backdrop of the towers of Pagan rising out of the early morning mist.

Beauty is also found in everyday scenes: women in brightly colored sarongs returning from laundering clothes in the river, or carrying water pots on their heads across the parched earth. There is an affectionate note in Tin Tun Hlaing’s portrayals of mothers and children, who help with daily tasks. Another favorite subject are the fishermen of famous Inlay Lake, balancing on the narrow, high-prowed boats above the mirror-like surface of the water. Often Tin Tun Hlaing uses a bird’s-eye perspective that heightens the poetic element of his compositions. Despite Myanmar’s recent turbulent history, he succeeds in capturing the “Golden Earth” that lies beneath the political upheaval