Friends and fans are mourning prominent artist Sitt Nyein Aye, who passed away in the US state of Colorado on Sept. 1. The 68-year-old was well known in both art and revolutionary circles.
Sitt Nyein Aye was a student of Khin Maung (Bank), a pioneer in the modernist art movement in Myanmar. The alumnus of Mandalay Fine Arts School had a long and prolific career as a modernist painter and illustrator in the city.
During the 8888 pro-democracy movement, Sitt Nyein Aye took an active part in the anti-dictatorship movement in Mandalay, publishing the anti-junta journal Red Galone. He later left for India where he continued to fight dictatorship by creating paintings in support of democracy and human rights.
Sitt Nyein Aye lived at the New Delhi residence of then Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes, whom Myanmar students affectionately called “Uncle George” as he was openly supportive of pro-democracy forces in their country. From Fernandes’ residence, Sitt Nyein Aye donated his paintings to revolutionary organizations.
Sitt Nyein Aye was affectionately known as Ko Sitt among revolutionaries. His paintings on the theme of the 1988 pro-democracy uprising were popular, as were his portraits of such figures as Win Maw Oo—a 17-year-old student who was gunned down during a 1988 pro-democracy protest—Myanmar democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Indian independence hero Gandhi.
Artist and former political prisoner Htein Lin wrote on his Facebook that Fernandes told him during a visit to New Delhi that “Your master [Sitt Nyein Aye] is a gifted person.” Both Htein Lin and his wife, former UK ambassador to Myanmar Vicky Bowman, were arrested and given one-year prison sentences last year before being released some two months later under an amnesty.
To help fund the ongoing Spring Revolution, a collector auctioned off a portrait of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi painted by Sitt Nyein Aye in New Delhi in 1993, and donated the proceeds to revolutionary forces. Sitt Nyein Aye also organized installations in the US to raise funds for the Spring Revolution.
While in exile, Sitt Nyein Aye lamented that he would never be able to return to his mother’s home in Myanmar. The revolutionary artist has now left all behind.
