The Lost Princess

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

Adapting the psychedelic aesthetics of Warhol's Pop Art screen prints, Aung Ko made two multi-edition series featuring old photographic portraitures of Burmese women, of which the 2012 Lost Princess series is the earlier. Explaining his inspiration from early hand-coloured photographic prints, the artist said that he wanted "to catch the colours of a moment in history". The same year release of Sudha Shah's The King in Exile revived popular interest in the last Konbaung monarch and the royal family, who were exiled to Ratnagiri, India, after the 1885 Anglo-Burmese War.

Aung Ko (b. 1980, Bago Region) is one of Myanmar's leading contemporary artists. A graduate of the University of Culture, Yangon in 2002, he is the founder of the artists-community Thuye'dan Village Art Project which was established in 2007. He has shown at major international art events including the Singapore Biennale 2008, and Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale 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.