Ngwe Gaing
| Ngwe Gaing ငွေကိုင် |
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Self Portrait
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| Born | 1901 Myeik, British Burma |
| Died | 1967 (aged 66) |
| Nationality | Burmese |
| Known for | Painting |
| Movement | Rangoon School |
| Awards | Alinga Kyaw Zwa |
Ngwe Gaing (Burmese: ငွေကိုင် [ŋwè ɡàɪɴ]; 1901–1967) was a Burmese artist who worked in both oil and watercolor. After the death of his teacher Ba Nyan, he was recognized as the greatest living painter in Myanmar. He had great influence on the next generation of artists, and his works are now highly sought after.
Of Burmese Chinese ancestry, Ngwe Gaing was born in Myeik and was raised in Dawei. He was initially self-taught and then improved his skills via an American correspondence painting course. He was forced to work at a number of menial jobs until he was able to support himself as an artist. He was first taught by Po Aung and later by Ba Ohn and Ba Sein, finally becoming a pupil of the famous artist Ba Nyan, after Ba Nyan returned from England in 1930. Ngwe Gaing, however, was not a formal live-in apprentice of Ba Nyan, rather studying with Ba Nyan on weekends in his free time.
With Ba Nyan's death in 1945, Ngwe Gaing was recognized as Burma's leading artist. During a drive to stamp out corruption in the post-independence period, he collaborated with the cartoonist Ba Gyan to produce a series of powerful and effective posters. In 1952 he was sent to England for a year, where he painted copies of Burmese antiquities in the Victoria & Albert Museum. In 1953, he was given the title Alinga Kyawzwa, the highest title that can be bestowed on an artist in Burma. In his private life, Ngwe Gaing was also a well known alchemist and clairvoyant. He was an honest, hardworking and unassuming person.
Ngwe Gaing was a prolific and versatile painter who worked in both oil and watercolour (both transparent and gouache), and he also did pencil drawings. His subjects comprised a wide range—historical paintings, landscapes, portraits, and still life. His oil paintings were meticulous in their attention to detail. They typically used heavily but carefully applied brush strokes, in the impasto style, and an array of complex colour designs.
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