Untitled (Musicians)

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

Worked in the traditional style of what the Burmese call 'one-line painting', the animated performers in Tun Tun Latt's paintings are graphically stylised with black outlines and flat colours. The chromatic schema of reds, browns, yellows, greens, black and white, mimics the colours of natural pigments used by traditional muralists.

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.