untitled (temple), U Bo Kyi

Exhibition Label:
“Holding Pattern: New Works at the Spencer Museum,” Sep-2014, Susan Earle and Cassandra Mesick
In a warm palette of reds, pinks, and yellows, this painting depicts a small group of monks navigating through a village to ask for daily alms. Burmese artist U Bo Kyi, or Bogie, created this work in 1972-relatively early in his career as a painter and at a time when his peers were beginning to experiment with cubism. Although Bogie’s later works defy easy categorization, varying from realist portraits, to abstract expressionism, to multimedia collage, this early piece exemplifies how local artists in Yangon experienced, interpreted, and adapted the cubist movement to create an iconic scene of everyday Burmese life.