Here’s a terrific initiative – “Ambitious Alignments: New Histories of Southeast Asian Art”. It’s organized by the Power Institute at the University of Sydney, the National Gallery Singapore (still under construction), and the Institute of Technology, Bandung. It’s funded by the Connecting Art Histories grant programme at the Getty Foundation. The aim is to enable early career scholars and curators from Southeast Asia to research particularly the decades from 1945 to 1990, defined by decolonization, independence, struggles for democracy, and the geopolitics of the Cold War. In the case of Burma, Andrew Ranard’s Burmese Painting: A Linear and Lateral History, published in 2009, is absolutely fabulous. But I’m sure he’d be the first to admit that it says rather more about pre-colonial and especially colonial times than it does about sovereign, modern Burma. Other studies have also been undertaken, in both Burmese and English, but none comes close to comprehensive coverage of the period. Additionally, the comparative aspect of this initiative is certain to add fascinating fresh perspectives. There’s abundant work to be done, and doing it now while at least some artists who lived through those years are still around makes very great sense.