U Bein Bridge

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

Han Tin Swe (b. 1958, Ayeyarwady Region) worked as a book and magazine illustrator for many years before he became a full-time artist. Han is best known as a painter of the rural landscape of regions inhabited by Myanmar's minority ethnic groups.

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.