The Wall Street Journal has a fascinating interview with Min Wae Aung:

With a solo exhibition, “Golden Heritage,” in Shanghai just ended, and a similarly titled retrospective book of his works published by the Hong Kong gallery Asia Fine Art earlier this month, Min Wae Aung is riding high. Of course, he’s already an established artist: His paintings hang in art galleries across the globe, and he counts more than 50 international exhibitions to date.

This may come as a surprise given Myanmar’s well-known isolationist foreign policy and authoritarian rule—and indeed, a federal censorship board still imposes certain restrictions on artists, albeit inconsistently. But truth be told, many of Myanmar’s artists enjoy relative freedom. And as the market for Southeast Asian art rises—along with the boom in Chinese art—so, too, does demand for Burmese art. […]

If you had unlimited funds and could buy anything, what would it be?

I would buy an Andrew Wyeth painting, perhaps “Christina’s World,” which is a painting of a girl lying in a field. That painting is very interesting. I think it’s in the MoMA (New York’s Museum of Modern Art). When I was in New York I saw it, in 1993.

How do you choose pieces for your collection?

When I collect, the style is not the main factor. The name of the artist and whether I like the artwork itself are most important.

The Collector: Min Wae Aung (Wall Street Journal)