Wander around the corridors of the faculty offices at the School of Social Sciences (SoSS) and you might find yourself surrounded by an unusual spectrum of colours. For the first time, a series of rarely seen art work from Myanmar is put on display at SoSS. The collection of 50 contemporary Myanmar paintings, known as the Thukhuma Collection@SoSS is a showcase of contemporary paintings from Myanmar, presenting multiple artistic perspectives on a society in transition.

It is a generous loan from Professor Ian Holliday, a major collector of post-reformation Myanmar art who is Vice-President and Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University of Hong Kong.

In September, about 70 art buffs including members of the SMU community and guests attended the launch of the Thukhuma Collection@SoSS. SMU was honoured to have Prof Holliday as well as former President of Singapore Mr S R Nathan who is Distinguished Senior Fellow at SOSS grace the event. SMU President Professor Arnoud De Meyer also participated in the launch.

From left: Associate Prof Kwek Kian Chow, SoSS Distinguished Senior Fellow Mr S R Nathan, Prof Ian Holliday, Prof Arnoud De Meyer and Prof James Tang. Prof Holliday was presented a token of appreciation for his generous art collection loan to SMU at the launch event. 

The Thukhuma Collection@SoSS is an extension of the University’s Visual Arts Initiative, and consists of art pieces by 32 Myanmar artists.

SOSS Dean Professor James Tang said the collection is important and significant to the School’s Arts and Culture Management (ACM) programme, through which “we seek to facilitate the expanding global scholarship on the management of arts and culture, which is built upon an interdisciplinary foundation integrating humanities, policy and management sciences as well as our broader interest in the understanding of societies as a School of Social Sciences.”

“We are fortunate to be situated in the heart of Singapore’s Civic District, home to top museums and monuments. Bringing together theory, practice and management, we endeavour to groom students into cosmopolitan managers of global museums and cultural activities,” he added.

The Thukhuma Collection@SoSS offers visitors the rare privilege of discovering contemporary Myanmar art at the cusp of change. 

Two of 50 paintings from the Thukhuma Collection@SoSS

A professor of political science, Professor Holliday’s interest began in the mid-2000s when frequent visits to Myanmar for academic research brought him in contact with galleries and artists in Yangon. Remarkable for its size and the pace of its amassment, his collection is also significant for its thematic and stylistic range in the painting medium, historically the dominant mode of artistic expression in Myanmar.

Author of Burma Redux: Global Justice and the Quest for Political Reform in Myanmar (Columbia University Press in 2011), Professor Holliday conducted a seminar in conjunction with the art launch.

Participants posing questions about Myanmar artists in relation to the military regime following Prof Holliday's seminar

The seminar, entitled “Painters, Politics and Protest in Burma/Myanmar, 1962-2015”, explored the censorship regime imposed on artists during nearly 50 years of direct and indirect military rule from 1962 to 2011. Prof Holliday touched on the efforts made by some of the artists to evade the rigid state censorship, and the impact the censorship had on creative development within the country. Prof Holliday also shared his views on Myanmar’s art scene in the more liberal environment when things started to change in 2011 with the switch to quasi-civilian government and the launch of a top-down transition to democracy.

Visitors and SMU community members admiring the paintings from the collection line the walls along the corridors on level 4 of the SoSS/SoE building.

SMU is grateful to Prof Holliday for the loan of the contemporary Myanmar paintings, which will no doubt enrich and enliven the University experience of our students as well as add to the vibrancy of diverse art collections available to the larger community.

The Thukhuma Collection@SoSS is open to public by appointment. Please contact the School at socsc [at] smu.edu.sg () for enquiries.

[Featured photo: Aung Ko's We Are Moving / Acrylic on canvas / 183 x 183cm / 2013