I don't claim to be Brian Sewell, nor would I want to be, although many people have been referring to my likeness to Ben Stiller.
However, I'd like to offer my laymans observations on the Thai National Gallery.
I arrived at 11.30am to find no vistitors. "A shame," I thought. Only three other people passed me in the hour I spent gracing its squeaky floors (or was that my sandals?)
My 30 baht(50p)paid, I proceeded cat-like into the high-ceilinged, air conditioned rooms containing 7 different exhibitions.
There was useful info. in English about traditional Thai art being unlifelike opposed to western realism. (which I tend to like) This made for some very unflattering monarchs of old.
As in western art though, the pre-1932 stuff was dominated by religious context. Although you never know in these galleries whether what you are seeing shows a true picture.
As I expected in Thai art, some of the details were astonishing. I actually liked a lot of the older paintings which depicted grand scenes of mythical creatures and of enchanted lands. There was a big play on intracy, monarchy and nature in these paintings.
One of the most striking exhibitions was in the contemporary hall. There was great use of different textures and materials. A strikingly simple elongated face of the Buddha was drawn in pencil onto the finest of silk and hung off the wall on a darker material background. It reminded me of the tabbernacle curtains in a church. It had beauty, softness and purity of form.
I stroked my 12 days of dark beard cultivation then moved on.....
There appeared to be a competition not unlike the BP national portrait award at the National Portrait gallery in London. Many paintings were for sale and some had their prize attached. (1st, 2nd etc)
My favourite was, "Grandma Si of Ban Nong," who exhibited the best flesh detail I have ever seen. It was not just Freudian flesh tones here but every wrinkle, vein, line, pore and hair follicle. Quite remarkable. In situ was the Grandmas grandson, his back to the viewer (a paragraph explained the knowledge she was instilling in him) although the two paintings were actually separate. Maybe an expression of emerging generational discourse?
Trying not to trip over sculptured exhibits which were everywhere I advanced to the monarchistic art.....
The Royal exhibition featured a lot of the (popular) current King, Rama IX (who incidently was installed in 1946 and is the longest reigning monarch ever) Actually you'll see his face across much of Thailand.
I enjoyed the various takes on what he had brought for his country. There were many impressive scenes of workers in fields, picking corn, extracting rubber from trees, cooking food. There was a real contemporary feel to some as they were realistic but used blues and purples making a striking image and maybe as a hint to nobility?
The ulta-contemporary stuff baffled me as usual. In fact if anyone can unravel the 30%,40%,50%,60% off piece - I'd be interested to know. It was simple enough, there was a 4 windows each with a ledge and a different blokes face pressed up hard against each towards the viewer. There was a % in ascending order on each window.
If I was to pick some overriding themes they would be expressions of faith, materialism, values, morality and religion. Makes a difference from some of the shockability stuff we see so often in British art.
The final area I visited was pure sculpture. It was entitled, "Buddhism, Eastern spirit in Thai sculpture," featuring works by 14 artists. I loved the egg shell box egg which represented life and re-incarnation. It was like an egg from Alien yet had a beauty. It reminded me of the bobbled chainmail of the teracotta army in China.
There was also threee figures in, "meditation." All three were bright shiny white, maybe porclein and they changed from a very distinctive figure to more sullied features. the final figure looked almost like a chair even though the outer body shape was the same as the first.
I am guessing that the artist was expressing his emotions in the medatitive state. How you lose yourself and that you get a sense of harmony and balance. However I couldn't help think about the "smoothie" movement - a cult of urban legend who have evrything removed to become smooth. This starts will all bodily hair, then extends to, ears, nose, toes, fingers etc.
All in all, a very worthwhile visit.
