Dance

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

In an arena dominated by figurative paintings, Soe Naing (b. 1961, Yangon) is the rare artist working in abstract expressionism. The artist has worked in this stylistic vein since the late 1990s. One of the country's most well-travelled artists, Soe Naing was part of a Southeast Asian contemporary art exhibition organised by Singapore Art Museum that travelled to Europe and Japan between the late 1990s and early 2000s. In 2014, he was a special feature artist in Art Stage Singapore's Southeast Asian Platform.

Soe Naing's Dance (2011) captures the freedom of abstract expressionism. He gravitated towards this art style, breaking free from a repressive art education where he learned to draw representational forms as outlined in a regimented syllabus. In this painting, he starts by drawing lines of a figure dancing, and then adding colours with broad brushstrokes.

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.