Harry Priestley goes to Rangoon to take a look at the development and current state of modern art in Burma and finds that there is life beyond the buffalo... "The man wipes his brow and studies the painting. Two robed monks are disappearing into a melting pastel-orange sunset while in the foreground a buffalo, head cocked quizzically, stares out. After a brief conversation with his companion, the man asks the stall holder to wrap the piece and pulls out a fan of fifty dollar bills. He takes the package and before the pair have climbed into a taxi, the empty wall space has been filled with another, almost identical painting. In Rangoon, where the average wage is somewhere in the region of a dollar a day, art can mean good business. Kyaw Zay Yar sells his paintings from his brother?s stall at downtown Rangoon?s Bogyoke Market and, despite it being only April, reckons to have already sold nearly 150 pieces this year. Passionate in declaring his love for contemporary abstract artists like Nyein Chan Su (?So strong and free, he?s the best?), Kyaw Zay Yar is first and foremost a man looking to provide for his young family—and churning out monks and sunsets helps him do just that. ?I paint like this because it?s good business,? he says. ?Foreigners like to buy beautiful scenes, so that?s what I paint..."