San Minn is a key figure in the early experimental artistic practice in Myanmar. His work always demonstrates consistent interest in social themes, executed through a bold use of colour, forceful lines and striking images assembled to convey symbolic and often surreal content. Executed in Cubistic style which San Minn referenced from the books he had seen at that time, this work depicts the Insein Prison where San Minn had been jailed due to his participation in student protests in 1974. Six months after his release in 1978, he started making this painting. He titled it simply “Building” to evade the censorship authorities and managed to show it in a group exhibition in 1979. The work can be positioned as an exmple from his experimentation period where San Minn was exploring various new approaches to painting --from semi-abstract, surrealistic to spatial expansion of two dimensionality in paintings by employment of readymade objects.
