Liftoff In Bangkok...and off to Chiang Mai
Liftoff in Bangkok! The project took an interesting turn towards the end of last week. Not only did Thai artists Alongkorn Lorawatthana and Ithipol Thangchalok both provide invaluable insight into Thai Spiritual art, but thanks to Ajan Panya's invitation, I was able to witness an auspicious intercultural event on Saturday evening with Austrian master Ernst Fuchs and family. Many more pictures in photo gallery.
Fuchs- a disciple of Salvador Dali and co-founder of the "Vienna School of Fantastic Realism" (1948) was in Thailand for the
first time to oversee the bronze casting of several large (15 ft) sculpture pieces for Fuchs' Austrian art park. The work is being overseen by his sons, who reside in Thailand nearly full-time. He is also exploring establishing a similar venue at an undisclosed location in Thailand, and the evening's inviation list reflected Fuchs' desire to build goodwill among Thailand's most accomplished artists, art patrons, political figures, and others. The mood was celebratory- Fuchs' sons, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren were in attendance, and his wife and muse Uta also performed several of her original songs. It was revealed that many of the Thai Artists in attendance had been influenced by Fuchs' work early in their careers-- much to the delight of Professor Fuchs and his family. This picture is of Ajan Panya Vijisarnathan with Professor Fuchs.
I am now in Chiang Mai, in the North of Thailand, where, according to many of the people I've spoken to, most artists prefer to live after studying in Bangkok.
Let's go chronoligically, though, because much has happened since the last post.
Friday I had the opportunity to meet with two outstanding Thai artists, Alongkorn Lorwatthana and Ithipol Thangchalok, who is also a professor at Silpakorn Univeristy.
Alongkorn's work, I think, typifies one pathway of spiritual artists I've met and whose work I've seen in Thailand. His earlier work used very direct Buddhist visual language, and in a hyper-realist or perhaps fantastic realist style that would not be unfamilar to many young artists, or to anyone who has seen the early 80s anime "Heavy Metal."
Alongkorn shared with me that after several years as an artist in Bangkok, he decided to live in India for two years. While his friends and colleagues encouraged him to study in the UK or the US, he chose India because of its position as a center of world spiritual culture. During this time, his style underwent the first significant change, becoming a more personal exploration of the transformation of moods and the personal "life situation" through acceptance. In this period, he also began a serious meditation practice. Below appear one piece from his Ganesha series (1998), which was shown in India and Thailand, and a piece reflecting on the sense of internal order brought about by meditation.
Upon returning from India, and In his most recent work, Alonkorn has been using the metaphor of a tree and its root system to explore dimensions of interconnectedness, and I think has arrived at an exciting balance between artistic maturity, engaging spiritual subject matter, and a spiritual understanding transmitted through his artwork. The Phor Tree, below, is an example of his more recent work in this vein.
Ajan (professor) Ithipol's recent work "faith" appeared in small version on the site last week-- a larger version of my favorite piece- "Faith" (2004)- appears below. Ithipol's writing on his own art belies a clarity about the exploration of polarities and the relationship with natural energy. He is an artist's artist- shown at the Venice Biennial in 1972 and now nearing retirement, he is acknowledged as one of Thailand's outstanding mixed media pioneers. His exhibition, A Primal Spirit was exhiliarting on its own, but has continued to grow on me as I reflect on the centeredness of Ithipol's perspective on the polarities of planes, forms, colors, and textures. He confided in me that his work changed direction signficantly after two seven-day meditation retreats in which his Buddhist spirituality deepened, and his tow most recent solo exhibitions, Matter of the Mind (2002) and the most recent, have reflected a distinct style, which blends the ordered preparation of the surfaces characteristic of his previous mixed media works with a more freeform process of decoration and embellishment achieved placing "dots" (representative of the most basic visual form), dictated by the surface preparation, with a complex layering of colors. In this second phase, with the framework in place through surface preparation, Ithipol lets the work become itself. I think this is a great metaphor for preparation in more formal religious and spiritual practices (i.e. the many "preliminaries" in Buddhist and Tantric practices) to set the framwork for pure creation. "Faith" is presented with a geometic field that unifies the contradictions of horizontal and vertical- resolving the polarities of belief and experience into an oderly-- even celebratory-- field of color. I could stare at this piece for hours.
Ithipol and Alongkorn work in very different styles, and I think this illustrates one of the interesting things about this project- the diversity of media and approaches that can be found under the umbrella (or mosquito net) of "spiritual art." Three areas stand out: spiritual imagery, spiritual intent of the artist, and the art that is made in spiritual communities (i.e. communities of practice large or small that are not part of the 'mainstream' of institutional religion). This is my working framework for the book and the project...as of today.
Tomorrow will be meeting with Tawatchai Somkong, one of the "Dons" of Northern Thaialnd's art scene (many thanks to Alongkorn for the introduction), and I hope to have more good news later this week. I will also be visiting the Dhamma Park Gallery, near Chiang Mai, where British artist Venetia Walkey and her Thai partner Inson Wongsam have created a Buddhist art "paradise."
Love and peace to all.
Fuchs- a disciple of Salvador Dali and co-founder of the "Vienna School of Fantastic Realism" (1948) was in Thailand for the
first time to oversee the bronze casting of several large (15 ft) sculpture pieces for Fuchs' Austrian art park. The work is being overseen by his sons, who reside in Thailand nearly full-time. He is also exploring establishing a similar venue at an undisclosed location in Thailand, and the evening's inviation list reflected Fuchs' desire to build goodwill among Thailand's most accomplished artists, art patrons, political figures, and others. The mood was celebratory- Fuchs' sons, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren were in attendance, and his wife and muse Uta also performed several of her original songs. It was revealed that many of the Thai Artists in attendance had been influenced by Fuchs' work early in their careers-- much to the delight of Professor Fuchs and his family. This picture is of Ajan Panya Vijisarnathan with Professor Fuchs.I am now in Chiang Mai, in the North of Thailand, where, according to many of the people I've spoken to, most artists prefer to live after studying in Bangkok.
Let's go chronoligically, though, because much has happened since the last post.
Friday I had the opportunity to meet with two outstanding Thai artists, Alongkorn Lorwatthana and Ithipol Thangchalok, who is also a professor at Silpakorn Univeristy.
Alongkorn's work, I think, typifies one pathway of spiritual artists I've met and whose work I've seen in Thailand. His earlier work used very direct Buddhist visual language, and in a hyper-realist or perhaps fantastic realist style that would not be unfamilar to many young artists, or to anyone who has seen the early 80s anime "Heavy Metal."
Alongkorn shared with me that after several years as an artist in Bangkok, he decided to live in India for two years. While his friends and colleagues encouraged him to study in the UK or the US, he chose India because of its position as a center of world spiritual culture. During this time, his style underwent the first significant change, becoming a more personal exploration of the transformation of moods and the personal "life situation" through acceptance. In this period, he also began a serious meditation practice. Below appear one piece from his Ganesha series (1998), which was shown in India and Thailand, and a piece reflecting on the sense of internal order brought about by meditation.
Upon returning from India, and In his most recent work, Alonkorn has been using the metaphor of a tree and its root system to explore dimensions of interconnectedness, and I think has arrived at an exciting balance between artistic maturity, engaging spiritual subject matter, and a spiritual understanding transmitted through his artwork. The Phor Tree, below, is an example of his more recent work in this vein.
Ajan (professor) Ithipol's recent work "faith" appeared in small version on the site last week-- a larger version of my favorite piece- "Faith" (2004)- appears below. Ithipol's writing on his own art belies a clarity about the exploration of polarities and the relationship with natural energy. He is an artist's artist- shown at the Venice Biennial in 1972 and now nearing retirement, he is acknowledged as one of Thailand's outstanding mixed media pioneers. His exhibition, A Primal Spirit was exhiliarting on its own, but has continued to grow on me as I reflect on the centeredness of Ithipol's perspective on the polarities of planes, forms, colors, and textures. He confided in me that his work changed direction signficantly after two seven-day meditation retreats in which his Buddhist spirituality deepened, and his tow most recent solo exhibitions, Matter of the Mind (2002) and the most recent, have reflected a distinct style, which blends the ordered preparation of the surfaces characteristic of his previous mixed media works with a more freeform process of decoration and embellishment achieved placing "dots" (representative of the most basic visual form), dictated by the surface preparation, with a complex layering of colors. In this second phase, with the framework in place through surface preparation, Ithipol lets the work become itself. I think this is a great metaphor for preparation in more formal religious and spiritual practices (i.e. the many "preliminaries" in Buddhist and Tantric practices) to set the framwork for pure creation. "Faith" is presented with a geometic field that unifies the contradictions of horizontal and vertical- resolving the polarities of belief and experience into an oderly-- even celebratory-- field of color. I could stare at this piece for hours.
Ithipol and Alongkorn work in very different styles, and I think this illustrates one of the interesting things about this project- the diversity of media and approaches that can be found under the umbrella (or mosquito net) of "spiritual art." Three areas stand out: spiritual imagery, spiritual intent of the artist, and the art that is made in spiritual communities (i.e. communities of practice large or small that are not part of the 'mainstream' of institutional religion). This is my working framework for the book and the project...as of today.
Tomorrow will be meeting with Tawatchai Somkong, one of the "Dons" of Northern Thaialnd's art scene (many thanks to Alongkorn for the introduction), and I hope to have more good news later this week. I will also be visiting the Dhamma Park Gallery, near Chiang Mai, where British artist Venetia Walkey and her Thai partner Inson Wongsam have created a Buddhist art "paradise."
Love and peace to all.
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