Bogyoke Aung San and Family

Credit Line: Gift of Ian Holliday 2023, Collection of SMU

The monochromatic painting reproduces an intimate photograph of General Aung San with his young family. The infant Aung San Suu Kyi is highlighted in pink. A revolutionary hero and founder of the Union of Burma, General Aung San was assassinated in 1947, six months before Burma's independence from British colonial rule.

Zwe Mon (b. 1990, Yangon) has made art making her full-time practice since graduating from Yangon's State School of Fine Arts in 2009.

The SMU Art Collection has over 70 paintings from Myanmar donated by Ian Holliday. A specialist in Burmese politics, Holliday assembled the Thukhuma Collection which comprises of Burmese paintings largely dating from the transitional decade of the 2010s, presenting multiple artistic perspectives on a society in reform. On display at School of Social Sciences and Li Ka Shing Library, the gifted paintings depict the people, culture and land, from the streets of Yangon and rural peripheries to political icons and indigenous deities.