Thailand (Lonely Planet, 13th Edition) - China Williams [47]
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Rama IX Art Museum (www.rama9art.org) is an online reference focusing on Thai contemporary artists and galleries.
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Italian artist Corrado Feroci is often credited as the father of modern Thai art. He was first invited to Thailand by Rama VI in 1924 and built Bangkok’s Democracy Monument and the militaristic Rama I monument that stands at the entry to Memorial Bridge. Feroci founded the country’s first fine arts institute in 1933, a school that eventually developed into Silpakorn University, Thailand’s premier training ground for artists. In gratitude, the Thai government made Feroci a Thai citizen, with the Thai name Silpa Bhirasri.
In the 1970s, Thai artists began to tackle the modernisation of Buddhist themes through abstract expressionism. Leading works in this genre include the colourful surrealism of Pichai Nirand, the mystical pen-and-ink drawings of Thawan Duchanee, and the fluid naturalist oil and watercolours of Pratuang Emjaroen. Receiving more exposure overseas than at home, Montien Boonma used the ingredients of Buddhist merit-making, such as gold leaf, bells and candle wax, to create abstract temple spaces within museum galleries. Other recognised names include Songdej Thipthong with his spare mandalas, Surasit Saokong with his realist paintings of rural temples, and Monchai Kaosamang with his ephemeral watercolours. Jitr (Prakit) Buabusaya painted in the French impressionist style but is best remembered as an art teacher.
Politically motivated artwork defines a parallel movement in Thai contemporary art. In Thailand’s quickly industrialising society, many artists have watched as the rice fields became factories, the forests became asphalt and the spoils went to the politically connected. During the student activist days of the 1970s, the Art for Life Movement was the banner under which creative discontents – including musicians, intellectuals and painters – rallied against the military dictatorship and embraced certain aspects of communism and workers’ rights. Sompote Upa-In and Chang Saetang are two important artists from that period.
During and after the boom times of the 1980s, an anti-authority attitude emerged in the work of the artists known as the Fireball school. Manit Sriwanichpoom is best known for his Pink Man on Tour series, in which he depicted artist Sompong Thawee in a pink suit and with a pink shopping cart amid Thailand’s most iconic attractions. Less famous are Manit’s evocative black-and-white photographic pieces denouncing capitalism and consumerism, typically identified as unwelcome Western imports. Vasan Sitthiket is more blatantly controversial and uses mixed-media installations to condemn the players he views as corrupt. His works have been banned in Thailand and widely criticised as anti-Thai.
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Steven Pettifor focuses on the work of some of Thailand’s most prominent contemporary artists in Flavours – Thai Contemporary Art (2003).
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In the 1990s there was a push to move art out of the dead zones of the museums and into the public spaces. An artist and art organiser, Navin Rawanchaikul started his ‘in-the-streets’ collaborations in his hometown of Chiang Mai and then moved his big ideas to Bangkok where he filled the city’s taxi cabs with art installations, a show that literally went on the road. His other works have had a way with words, such as the mixed media piece We Are the Children of Rice (Wine) in 2002 and his rage against the commercialisation of museums in his epic painting entitled Super (M)art Bangkok Survivors (2004), which depicts famous artists, curators and decision makers in a crowded Paolo Veronese setting. The