Art Exhibition: Artworks depicting 100 Apyodaw

With the aim of preserving Myanmar traditional culture, 100 damsels or Apyo daw art exhibition was held in Mandalay Hill Art Gallery for 2 days. 

The artwork of exhibition depicts lifestyle and fashion style of Yadanarpon Era’s damsels. Artist, Daw Khin Myo Myint Shwe illustrated the paintings under the guidelines of her senior artists. 

Tampawaddy U Win Maung, Myanmar Traditional Architect said "This is a 100 Apyo Daw art exhibition. Like this, we had Parabaiks: 100 animals and 100 flowers and plants. But unfortunately, some were damaged and some were stolen. But some are still available at England Museum. Dr. Than Htun who was the first introduction of apyodaw 100 to the public. He was taken black and white photos of parabaiks on Aphodaw on his abroad trip. Then, Archaeologist U Tun Yee copied these photos on the wax paper and published. So, we got the knowledge about Apyodaw. "

The original photos of 100 damsels were very simple and the backgrounds of all photos were reddish brown. The artist creates intricately her artworks based on these photos without losing original styles. The paintings are drawn with acrylic on 1x1-ft canvas each. 

Khin Myo Myint Shwe, Artist said "I have intended to draw these pictures since 8 years ago. I put all my effort on this when I got retired. I received the reference from my senior artists. The original pictures are very small and so, I took 2 years for sketching. These all have original names and 8 pictures are displayed without titles. When I copied from original, I didn’t change the color themes."

The art exhibition was held for 2 days and all paintings will be published as book.