Artists celebrate greater freedom of expression

Published on Sunday, 30 December 2012 12:30

Myanmar artists said recently they have enjoyed greater freedom of expression for their art exhibitions this year than in the past.

“It assumes that we have achieved a certain freedom of expression this year, and a variety of different themes can now be expressed in our works without being banned and tightly censored. We may even draw paintings on the theme of politics. Still, there is ban on some religious and ethnic themes,” an artist said on the condition of anonymity.

Along with improved freedom of expression, more and more people are interested in them and it leads to the thriving of art exhibitions commercially.

Artist Aung Myint said, “The number of exhibitions as well as that of art galleries here significantly increased during this year. We also had some international exposure. We can say 2012 has been a fruitful year for artists.”

“Artists stage the shows with both financial expectations and desire to express art in their works. Perhaps, the show may not be economically successful, but one is satisfied if one could display works to people with interest. So, more freedom of expression leads to increased number of art shows,” Artist Ko Naing Gyi said.

There have been 164 art shows totally in Myanmar during the first eight months of 2012, while there were only 139 shows and 143 shows respectively during the same period of 2011 and 2010.

In 2012, 80 per cent of art shows were exhibitions of paintings and pictures.