Review
Retrospective exhibition encapsulates the development of Thai art over the last 50 years
ANDREW J. WEST
The direction of modern art in Thailand since World War Two has been substantially influenced by only a handful of select individuals and organisations. Ranking highly among this small but significant band is the Thai Fulbright Association, which has supported the education of numerous important artists since its inception in 1950, five of whom have gathered to exhibit a selection of their works.
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| ‘Rhythm of the Stream’, an oil-on-canvas painting, by Pairoj Wangbon. |
"Fulbright and a Way to Wisdom", currently on show at the Pridi Banomyong Institute, is a rare chance to view a retrospective exhibition that encapsulates the development of Thai art over the last 50 years, with four of the five artists - including a National Artist in Visual Arts (Sculpture) - having begun their careers in the 1950s and '60s.
The artists are Inson Wongsam, Praphan Srisouta, Prasit Silpadechakul, Thawatchai Srisompetch and Pairoj Wangbon.
Inson Wongsam, who was awarded the prestigious title of National Artist in 1999, has made a name over the last half century as both a painter and sculptor since studying at Silpakorn University and then in Paris and New York in the '60s. He is best known as a sculptor, particularly for his work with wood, in which he has simplified natural forms to abstraction.
In this show, however, Inson returns to the focus of his earlier career, which was painting. The works, mostly created over the past decade, are abstract expressions of organic forms, watercolour equivalents of his three dimensional expression. These works on paper are deceptively straightforward in their execution, masking a maturity of aesthetic comprehension sublimated to sublime simplicity.
Praphan Srisouta, another Silpakorn alumni, studied in Germany before continuing his education in the USA with a Fulbright scholarship. Principally known for his woodcut prints of children in blank ink, his works in this exhibition are of a more abstract nature.
Prasit Silpadechakul spent his career as a freelance artist after graduating from Vichit Silp division of Poh Chang school and teaching in Chiang Mai for four years. His works are the most typically Thai of the five, with traditional temple-type mural scenes from a bird's eye view of everyday Thai life set in the historic past, and the series he has displayed here is visually stimulating and culturally informative.
Thawatchai Srisompetch majored in sculpture at Silpakorn before a Fulbright scholarship allowed him to study sculpture further in Rome in the 1960s. He is best known for his monumental sculptures, including King Taksin Riding a Horse, and numerous life-sized and double life-sized statues of King Rama V scattered around Thailand, as well as some thirty other significant pieces.
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| A sculpture work by Thawatchai Srisompetch. |
His works at the Institute are somewhat small-scale in comparison to his public space commissions. These compositions are sensuous and tactile cast shapes intended for intimate, private settings. Also included are several wooden pieces created while studying in Rome, models on which many of the subsequent bronzes are based.
The youngest artist, Pairoj Wangbon, who currently teaches at Silpakorn University, offers the audience works representative of his semi-abstract style that utilises a mixture of brushwork techniques revealing a deeper truth about nature.
These artists do not on the whole make their works available through Thailand's network of commercial galleries and this exhibition is not only an opportunity to see their work but to own it too, with part of the proceeds from the sale going toward the Thai Fulbright Association's educational projects for deprived children.
A visit to "Fulbright and a Way to Wisdom" may not only be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for an astute investor to acquire a piece of historically relevant art, it is a means to contribute, as the Thai Fulbright Association continues to do, to the development of the Thai nation.
'Fulbright and a Way to Wisdom' is on show until December 29 at Pridi Banomyong Institute, Sukhumvit road Soi 55, open daily from 8.30am to 6pm except public holidays.
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