Birds

Paw Oo Thet (called POT), artist

1936–1993

Birds, 1972

Where object was made: Burma (present-day Myanmar)

Material/technique: acrylic; canvas

Credit line: Gift of Jack and Liz Kaufman

Accession number: 2014.0090

Not on display

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“Forms are necessary for the representation of truth. It has been our ultimate objective for the realization of deliverance to make use of forms in the artistic ways of life.”

– Paw Oo Thet “POT” (1994)

Born in Mandalay, Paw Oo Thet lost his right hand at the age of 12 when a bomb left over from WWII exploded as he and his friends were playing with it. He learned to use his left hand with great skill and became a well-known watercolorist and a central figure in the Burmese modernist art movement of the 1960s and early 1970s. While he made a living as an illustrator and cartoonist for the People’s Daily newspaper in Mandalay, in his art practice he created highly gestural works that sought to express contemporary Burmese identity. By merging Burmese forms with techniques appropriated from abroad, he created a hybrid approach to painting.