Art and architecture

Aside from pockets of Hindu-inspired statuary and architecture, the vast majority of historical Thai culture takes its inspiration from Theravada Buddhism, and, though the country does have some excellent museums, to understand fully the evolution of Thai art you have to visit its temples. Artists, sculptors and architects have tended to see their work as a way of making spiritual merit rather than as a means of self-expression or self-promotion, so pre-twentieth-century Thai art history is all about evolving styles rather than individual artists. This section is designed to help make sense of the most common aspects of Thai art and architecture at their various stages of development.

The wat

Buddhist temple complexes, or wats, are central to nearly every community in Thailand and, as the main expressions of public architecture and art over the centuries, are likely to loom large in visitors’ experiences of the country, too. Wat architecture has evolved in diverse ways, but the names and purposes of the main buildings have stayed constant in Thailand for some fifteen centuries.

Some general design features of Thai temples are also distinctive. The Khmers, who had ruled much of the country long before the Thais came onto the scene, built their temples to a cosmological plan, with concentric layers representing earth, oceans and heavens, rising to a central high point (Phanom Rung near Surin is a stunning example of this). Remnants of this layout persisted in Thai temples, including boundary walls – which are sometimes combined with a moat – and the multi-tiered roofs of so many wat buildings.

Furthermore, the Thais come from a tradition of building in wood rather than stone or brick, hence the leaning walls and long, curving roofs that give wats their elegant, tapering lines. On top of this, wat architects have long been preoccupied with light, the symbol of Buddhist wisdom and clarity, covering their buildings with gilt, filigree and vividly coloured glass mosaics.

The bot

The most important wat building is the bot (sometimes known as the ubosot), where monks are ordained. It usually stands at the heart of the compound, but lay people are rarely allowed inside. There’s only one bot in any wat complex, and often the only way you’ll be able to distinguish it from other temple buildings is by the eight sema or boundary stones which always surround it. Positioned at the four corners of the bot and at the cardinal points of the compass, these sema define the consecrated ground and usually look something like upright gravestones, though they can take many forms. They are often carved all over with symbolic Buddhist scenes or ideograms, and sometimes are even protected within miniature shrines of their own. One of the best sema collections is housed in the National Museum of Khon Kaen, in the northeast.

The viharn

Often almost identical in appearance to the bot, the viharn or assembly hall is the building you are most likely to enter, as it usually contains the wat’s principal Buddha image, and sometimes two or three minor images as well. Large wats may have several viharns, while strict meditation wats, which don’t deal with the laity, may not have one at all.

The chedi

Upon the Buddha’s death, disciples from all over Asia laid claim to his relics, enshrining them in specially constructed towers, known as chedis in Thailand. In later centuries, chedis have also become repositories for the ashes of royalty or important monks – and anyone else who could afford to have one built. Each chedi’s three main components reflect a traditional symbolism. In theory, the chedi base should be divided into three layers to represent hell, earth and heaven. Above this, the dome usually contains the cube-shaped reliquary, known as a harmika after the Sanskrit term for the Buddha’s seat of meditation. Crowning the structure, the spire is graded into 33 rings, one for each of the 33 Buddhist heavens.

The mondop and ho trai

Less common wat buildings include the square mondop, usually built with a complex, cruciform roof, which houses either a Buddha statue or footprint, or holy texts. One of the most spectacular examples, with an ornate green-and-gold roof and huge doors encrusted with mother-of-pearl, shelters Thailand’s holiest footprint of the Buddha, at Wat Phra Phutthabat near Lopburi.

The ho trai, or scripture library, is generally constructed on stilts, sometimes over a pond, to protect against termites and fire. You can see particularly good examples of traditional ho trai at Wat Rakhang in Bangkok, at Wat Phra Singh in Chiang Mai and at Wat Yai Suwannaram in Phetchaburi.

Buddhist iconography

In the early days of Buddhism, image-making was considered inadequate to convey the faith’s abstract philosophies, so the only approved iconography comprised doctrinal symbols such as the Dharmachakra (Wheel of Law, also known as Wheel of Doctrine or Wheel of Life;). Gradually these symbols were displaced by images of the Buddha, construed chiefly as physical embodiments of the Buddha’s teachings rather than as portraits of the man. Sculptors took their guidance from the Pali texts, which ordained the Buddha’s most common postures (asanha) and gestures (mudra).

All three-dimensional Buddha images are objects of reverence, but some are more esteemed than others. Some are alleged to have reacted in a particular way to unusual events, others have performed miracles, or are simply admired for their beauty, their phenomenal size or even their material value – if made of solid gold or jade, for example. Most Thais are familiar with these exceptional images, all of which have been given special names, always prefixed by the honorific “Phra”, and many of which have spawned thousands of miniaturized copies in the form of amulets. Pilgrimages are made to see the most famous originals.

Postures and gestures of the Buddha

Of the four postures – sitting, standing, walking and reclining – the seated Buddha, which represents him in meditation, is the most common in Thailand. A popular variation shows the Buddha seated on a coiled serpent, protected by the serpent’s hood: a reference to the story about the Buddha meditating during the rainy season, when a serpent offered to raise him off the wet ground and shelter him from the storms. The reclining pose symbolizes the Buddha entering Nirvana at his death, while the standing and walking images both represent his descent from heaven.

The most common hand gestures include:

Dhyana Mudra (Meditation), in which the hands rest on the lap, palms upwards.

Bhumisparsa Mudra (Calling the Earth to Witness, a reference to the Buddha resisting temptation), with the left hand upturned in the lap and the right-hand fingers resting on the right knee and pointing to the earth.

Vitarkha Mudra (Teaching), with one or both hands held at chest height with the thumb and forefinger touching.

Abhaya Mudra (Dispelling Fear), showing the right hand (occasionally both hands) raised in a flat-palmed “stop” gesture.

It was in the Sukhothai era that the craze for producing Buddha footprints really took off. Harking back to the time when images were allusive rather than representative, these footprints were generally moulded from stucco to depict the 108 auspicious signs or lakshanas (which included references to the sixteen Buddhist heavens, the traditional four great continents and seven great rivers and lakes) and housed in a special mondop. Few of the Sukhothai footprints remain, but Ayutthaya- and Ratanakosin-era examples are found all over the country, the most famous being Phra Phutthabat near Lopburi, the object of pilgrimages throughout the year. The feet of the famous Reclining Buddha in Bangkok’s Wat Pho are also inscribed with the 108 lakshanas, beautifully depicted in mother-of-pearl inlay.

Hindu iconography

Hindu images tend to be a lot livelier than Buddhist ones; there are countless gods to choose from and many have mischievous personalities and multiple inventive incarnations. In Hindu philosophy any object can be viewed as the temporal residence, embodiment or symbol of the deity so you get abstract representations such as the phallic lingam (pillar) for Shiva, as well as figurative images. Though pure Hinduism receded from Thailand with the collapse of the Khmer empire, Buddhist Thais have incorporated some Hindu and Brahmin concepts into the national belief system and have continued to create statues of the three chief Hindu deities – Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva – as well as using many mythological creatures in modern designs.

The Hindu Trinity

Vishnu has always been a favourite: in his role of “Preserver” he embodies the status quo, representing both stability and the notion of altruistic love. He is most often depicted as the deity, but has ten manifestations in all, of which Rama (number seven) is by far the most popular in Thailand. The epitome of ideal manhood, Rama is the superhero of the epic story the Ramayana – in Thai, the Ramakien– and appears in storytelling reliefs and murals in every Hindu temple in Thailand; in painted portraits you can usually recognize him by his green face. Manifestation number eight is Krishna, more widely known than Rama in the West, but slightly less common in Thailand. Krishna is usually characterized as a flirtatious, flute-playing, blue-skinned cowherd, but he is also a crucial figure in the lengthy moral epic poem, the Mahabharata. Confusingly, Vishnu’s ninth avatar is the Buddha – a manifestation adopted many centuries ago to minimize defection to the Buddhist faith. When represented as the deity, Vishnu is generally shown sporting a crown and four arms, his hands holding a conch shell (whose music wards off demons), a discus (used as a weapon), a club (symbolizing the power of nature and time), and a lotus (symbol of joyful flowering and renewal). He is often depicted astride a garuda, a half-man, half-bird. Even without Vishnu on its back, the garuda is a very important beast: a symbol of strength, it’s often shown “supporting” temple buildings.

Statues and representations of Brahma (the Creator) are rare. He too has four arms, but holds no objects; he has four faces (sometimes painted red), is generally borne by a goose-like creature called a hamsa, and is associated with the direction north.

Shiva (the Destroyer) is the most volatile member of the pantheon. He stands for extreme behaviour, for beginnings and endings, as enacted in his frenzied Dance of Destruction, and for fertility, and is a symbol of great energy and power. His godlike form typically has four, eight or ten arms, sometimes holding a trident (representing creation, protection and destruction) and a drum (to beat the rhythm of creation). In his most famous role, as Nataraja, or Lord of the Dance, he is usually shown in stylized standing position with legs bent into a balletic position, and the full complement of arms outstretched above his head. Three stripes on a figure’s forehead also indicate Shiva, or one of his followers. In abstract form, he is represented by a lingam (once found at the heart of every Khmer temple in the northeast). Primarily a symbol of energy and godly power, the lingam also embodies fertility, particularly when set upright in a vulva-shaped vessel known as a yoni. The yoni doubles as a receptacle for the holy water that worshippers pour over the lingam.

Lesser gods

Close associates of Shiva include Parvati, his wife, and Ganesh, his elephant-headed son. As the god of knowledge and overcomer of obstacles (in the path of learning), Ganesh is used as the symbol of the Fine Arts Department, so his image features on all entrance tickets to national museums and historical parks.

The royal, three-headed elephant, Erawan, usually only appears as the favourite mount of the god Indra, the king of the gods, with specific power over the elements (particularly rain) and over the east. Other Hindu gods of direction, which are commonly found on the appropriate antefix in Khmer temples, include Yama on a buffalo (south); Varuna on a naga (mythical serpent) or a hamsa (west); Brahma (north); and Isaana on a bull (northeast).

Lesser mythological figures, which originated as Hindu symbols but feature frequently in wats and other Buddhist contexts, include the yaksha giants who ward off evil spirits (like the enormous freestanding ones guarding Bangkok’s Wat Phra Kaeo); the graceful half-woman, half-bird kinnari; and the ubiquitous naga, or serpent king of the underworld, often with as many as seven heads, whose reptilian body most frequently appears as staircase balustrades in Hindu and Buddhist temples.

The schools

In the 1920s art historians and academics began compiling a classification system for Thai art and architecture that was modelled along the lines of the country’s historical periods; these are the guidelines followed below. The following brief overview starts in the sixth century, when Buddhism began to take a hold on the country; few examples of art from before that time have survived, and there are no known, earlier architectural relics.

Dvaravati (sixth to eleventh centuries)

Centred around Nakhon Pathom, U Thong and Lopburi in the Chao Phraya basin and in the smaller northern enclave of Haripunjaya (modern-day Lamphun), the Dvaravati civilization was populated by Mon-speaking Theravada Buddhists who were strongly influenced by Indian culture.

The only known surviving Dvaravati-era building is the pyramidal laterite chedi at Lamphun’s Wat Chama Thevi, but the national museums in Bangkok, Nakhon Pathom and Lamphun house quite extensive collections of Buddha images from that period. To make the best of the poor-quality limestone at their disposal, Dvaravati sculptors made their Buddhas quite stocky, cleverly dressing the figures in a sheet-like drape that dropped down to ankle level from each raised wrist, forming a U-shaped hemline – a style which they used when casting in bronze as well. Where the faces have survived, they are strikingly naturalistic, distinguished by their thick lips, flattened noses and wide cheekbones.

Nakhon Pathom, thought to have been a target of Buddhist missionaries from India since before the first century AD, has also yielded many dharmachakra, originating in the period when the Buddha could not be directly represented. These metre-high carved stone wheels symbolize the cycles of life and reincarnation, and in Dvaravati examples are often accompanied by a small statue of a deer, which refers to the Buddha preaching his first sermon in a deer park.

Srivijaya (eighth to thirteenth centuries)

While Dvaravati’s Theravada Buddhists were influencing the central plains and, to a limited extent, areas further to the north, southern Thailand was paying allegiance to the Mahayana Buddhists of the Srivijayan civilization. Mahayanists believe that those who have achieved enlightenment – known as bodhisattva – should postpone their entry into Nirvana in order to help others along the way, and depictions of these saint-like beings were the mainstay of Srivijayan art.

The finest Srivijayan bodhisattva statues were cast in bronze and are among the most graceful and sinuous ever produced in Thailand. Many are lavishly adorned, and some were even bedecked in real jewels when first made. By far the most popular bodhisattva subject was Avalokitesvara, worshipped as compassion incarnate. Generally shown with four or more arms and with an animal skin over the left shoulder or tied at the waist, Avalokitesvara is also sometimes depicted with his torso covered in tiny Buddha images. Bangkok’s National Museum holds the most beautiful Avalokitesvara, the Bodhisattva Padmapani found in Chaiya, but there’s a good sandstone example in situ at Prasat Muang Singh near Kanchanaburi.

The most typical intact example of a Srivijayan temple is the heavily restored Javanese-style chedi at Chaiya’s Wat Phra Boromathat, with its highly ornamented, stepped chedi featuring mini-chedis at each corner.

Khmer and Lopburi (tenth to fourteenth centuries)

By the end of the ninth century the Khmers of Cambodia were starting to expand from their capital at Angkor into the Dvaravati states, bringing with them the Hindu faith and the cult of the god-king (devaraja). They built hundreds of imposing stone sanctuaries across their newly acquired territory, most notably within southern Isaan, at Phimai, Phanom Rung and Khao Phra Viharn.

Each magnificent castle-temple – known in Khmer as a prasat – was constructed primarily as a shrine for a Shiva lingam, the phallic representation of the god Shiva. They followed a similar pattern, centred on at least one pyramidal or corncob-shaped tower, or prang, which represented Mount Meru (the gods’ heavenly abode) and housed the lingam. Prangs were surrounded by concentric rectangular galleries, whose gopura (entrance chambers) at the cardinal points were usually approached by staircases flanked with naga balustrades; in Khmer temples, nagas generally appear as symbolic bridges between the human world and that of the gods. Most compounds enclosed ponds between their outer and inner walls, and many were surrounded by a network of moats and reservoirs: historians attribute the Khmers’ political success in part to their skill in designing highly efficient irrigation systems.

Exuberant carvings ornamented almost every surface of the prasat. Usually gouged from sandstone, but frequently moulded in stucco, they depict Hindu deities, incarnations and stories, especially episodes from the Ramayana. Towards the end of the twelfth century, the Khmer leadership became Mahayana Buddhist, commissioning Buddhist carvings to be installed alongside the Hindu ones, and often replacing the Shiva lingam with a Buddha or bodhisattva image.

The temples built in the former Theravada Buddhist principality of Lopburi during the Khmer period are much smaller than those in Isaan; the triple-pranged temple of Phra Prang Sam Yot is typical. Broad-faced and muscular, the classic Lopburi-era Buddha statue wears a diadem or ornamental headband – a nod to the Khmers’ ideological fusion of earthly and heavenly power – and the ushnisha (the sign of enlightenment) becomes distinctly conical rather than a mere bump on the head. Early Lopburi Buddhas also come garlanded with necklaces and ornamental belts. As you’d expect, Lopburi National Museum houses a good selection.

Sukhothai (thirteenth to fifteenth centuries)

Capitalizing on the Khmers’ weakening hold over central Thailand, two Thai generals established the first major Thai kingdom in Sukhothai in 1238, and over the next two hundred years its citizens produced some of Thailand’s most refined art.

Sukhothai’s artistic reputation rests above all on its sculpture. More sinuous even than the Srivijayan images, Sukhothai Buddhas tend towards elegant androgyny, with slim oval faces and slender curvaceous bodies usually clad in a plain, skintight robe that fastens with a tassel close to the navel. The sculptors favoured the seated pose, with hands in the Bhumisparsa Mudra, most expertly executed in the Phra Buddha Chinnarat image, now housed in Phitsanulok’s Wat Si Ratana Mahathat (replicated at Bangkok’s Wat Benjamabophit) and in the enormous Phra Sri Sakyamuni, now enshrined in Bangkok’s Wat Suthat. They were also the first to represent the walking Buddha, a supremely graceful figure with his right leg poised to move forwards and his left arm in the Vitarkha Mudra, as seen at Sukhothai’s Wat Sra Si.

Rather than pull down the sacred prangs of their predecessors, Sukhothai builders added bots, viharns and chedis to the existing structures, as well as conceiving quite separate temple complexes. Their viharns and bots are the earliest halls of worship still standing in Thailand (the Khmers didn’t go in for large public assemblies), but in most cases only the stone pillars and their platforms remain, the wooden roofs having long since disintegrated. The best examples can be seen in the historical parks at Sukhothai, Si Satchanalai and Kamphaeng Phet.

Most of the chedis are in much better shape. Many were modelled on the Sri Lankan bell-shaped reliquary tower (symbolizing the Buddha’s teachings ringing out far and wide), often set atop a one- or two-tiered square base surrounded by elephant buttresses; Si Satchanalai’s Wat Chang Lom is a good example. The architects also devised the lotus-bud chedi, a slender tower topped with a tapered finial that was to become a hallmark of the Sukhothai era; in Sukhothai both Wat Mahathat and Wat Trapang Ngoen display classic examples.

Ancient Sukhothai is also renowned for the skill of its potters, who produced ceramic ware known as Sawankhalok, after the name of one of the nearby kiln towns. Most museum ceramics collections are dominated by Sawankhalok ware, which is distinguished by its grey-green celadon glazes and by the fish and chrysanthemum motifs used to decorate bowls and plates; there’s a dedicated Sawankhalok museum in Sukhothai.

Lanna (thirteenth to sixteenth centuries)

Meanwhile, to the north of Sukhothai, the independent Theravada Buddhist kingdom of Lanna was flourishing. Its art styles – known interchangeably as Chiang Saen and Lanna – built on the Dvaravati heritage of Haripunjaya, copying direct from Indian sources and incorporating Sukhothai and Sri Lankan ideas from the south.

The earliest surviving Lanna monument is the Dvaravati-style Chedi Si Liam at Wiang Kum Kam near Chiang Mai, built to the pyramidal form characteristic of Mon builders. Also in Chiang Mai, Wat Jet Yot replicates the temple built at Bodh Gaya in India to commemorate the seven sites where the Buddha meditated in the first seven weeks after attaining enlightenment.

Lanna sculpture also drew some inspiration from Bodh Gaya, echoing the plumpness of the Buddha image, and its broad shoulders and prominent hair curls. The later works are slimmer, probably as a result of Sukhothai influence, and one of the most famous examples of this type is the Phra Singh Buddha, enshrined in Chiang Mai’s Wat Phra Singh. Other good illustrations of both styles are housed in Chiang Mai’s National Museum.

Ayutthaya (fourteenth to eighteenth centuries)

From 1351 Thailand’s central plains came under the thrall of a new power centred on Ayutthaya and ruled by a former prince of Lopburi. Over the next four centuries, the Ayutthayan capital became one of the most prosperous and ostentatious cities in Asia, its rulers commissioning some four hundred grand wats as symbols of their wealth and power. Though essentially Theravada Buddhists, the kings also adopted some Hindu and Brahmin beliefs from the Khmers – most significantly the concept of devaraja or god-kingship, whereby the monarch became a mediator between the people and the Hindu gods. The religious buildings and sculptures of this era reflected this new composite ideology, both by fusing the architectural styles inherited from the Khmers and from Sukhothai and by dressing their Buddhas to look like regents.

Retaining the concentric layout of the typical Khmer temple complex, Ayutthayan builders refined and elongated the prang into a corncob-shaped tower, rounding it off at the top and introducing vertical incisions around its circumference. As a spire they often added a bronze thunderbolt, and into niches within the prang walls they placed Buddha images. In Ayutthaya itself, the ruined complexes of Wat Phra Mahathat and Wat Ratburana both include these corncob prangs, but the most famous example is Bangkok’s Wat Arun, which, though built during the subsequent Bangkok period, is a classic Ayutthayan structure.

Ayutthaya’s architects also adapted the Sri Lankan chedi favoured by their Sukhothai predecessors, stretching the bell-shaped base and tapering it into a very graceful conical spire, as at Wat Phra Si Sanphet in Ayutthaya. The viharns of this era are characterized by walls pierced by slit-like windows, designed to foster a mysterious atmosphere by limiting the amount of light inside the building. As with all of Ayutthaya’s buildings, few viharns survived the brutal 1767 sacking, with the notable exception of Wat Na Phra Mane. Phitsanulok’s Wat Phra Si Ratana Mahathat was built to a similar plan – and in Phetchaburi, Wat Yai Suwannaram has no windows at all.

From Sukhothai’s Buddha sculptures the Ayutthayans copied the soft oval face, adding an earthlier demeanour to the features and imbuing them with a hauteur in tune with the devaraja ideology. Early Ayutthayan statues wear crowns to associate kingship with Buddhahood; as the court became ever more lavish, so these figures became increasingly adorned, until – as in the monumental bronze at Wat Na Phra Mane – they appeared in earrings, armlets, anklets, bandoliers and coronets. The artists justified these luscious portraits of the Buddha – who was, after all, supposed to have given up worldly possessions – by pointing to an episode when the Buddha transformed himself into a well-dressed nobleman to gain the ear of a proud emperor, whereupon he scolded the man into entering the monkhood.

While a couple of wats in Sukhothai show hints of painted decoration, religious painting in Thailand really dates from the Ayutthayan era. Unfortunately most of Ayutthaya’s own paintings were destroyed in 1767, but several temples elsewhere have well-preserved murals, in particular Wat Yai Suwannaram in Phetchaburi. By all accounts typical of late seventeenth-century painting, the Phetchaburi murals depict rows of thep, or divinities, paying homage to the Buddha, in scenes presented without shadow or perspective, and mainly executed in dark reds and cream.

Ratanakosin (eighteenth century to the 1930s)

When Bangkok emerged as Ayutthaya’s successor in 1782, the new capital’s founder was determined to revive the old city’s grandeur, and the Ratanakosin (or Bangkok) period began by aping what the Ayutthayans had done. Since then neither wat architecture nor religious sculpture has evolved much further.

The first Ratanakosin building was the bot of Bangkok’s Wat Phra Kaeo, built to enshrine the Emerald Buddha. Designed to a typical Ayutthayan plan, it’s coated in glittering mirrors and gold leaf, with roofs ranged in multiple tiers and tiled in green and orange. To this day, most newly built bots and viharns follow a more economical version of this paradigm, whitewashing the outside walls but decorating the pediment in gilded ornaments and mosaics of coloured glass. Tiered temple roofs still taper off into the slender bird-like finials called chofa, and naga staircases – a Khmer feature inherited by Ayutthaya – have become almost obligatory. The result is that modern wats are often almost indistinguishable from each other, though Bangkok does have a few exceptions, including Wat Benjamabophit, which uses marble cladding for its walls and incorporates Victorian-style stained-glass windows, and Wat Rajabophit, which is covered all over in Chinese ceramics. The most dramatic chedi of the Ratanokosin era was constructed in the mid-nineteenth century in Nakhon Pathom to the original Sri Lankan style, but minus the elephant buttresses found in Sukhothai.

Early Ratanakosin sculptors produced adorned Buddha images very much in the Ayutthayan vein. The obsession with size, first apparent in the Sukhothai period, has since plumbed new depths, with graceless concrete statues up to 60m high becoming the norm, often painted brown or a dull yellow. Most small images are cast from or patterned on older models, mostly Sukhothai or Ayutthayan in origin.

Painting has fared much better, with the Ramayana murals in Bangkok’s Wat Phra Kaeo a shining example of how Ayutthayan techniques and traditional subject matters could be adapted into something fantastic, imaginative and beautiful.

Contemporary

Following the democratization of Thailand in the 1930s, artists increasingly became recognized as individuals, and took to signing their work for the first time. In 1933 the first school of fine art (now Bangkok’s Silpakorn University) was established under the Italian sculptor Corrado Feroci (later Silpa Bhirasri), designer of the capital’s Democracy Monument and, as the new generation experimented with secular themes and styles adapted from the West, Thai art began to look a lot more “modern”. As for subject matter, the leading artistic preoccupation of the past eighty years has been Thailand’s spiritual heritage and its role in contemporary society. Since 1985, a number of Thailand’s more established contemporary artists have earned the title National Artist, an honour that’s bestowed annually on notable artists working in all disciplines, including fine art, performing arts, film and literature.

The artists

One of the first modern artists to adapt traditional styles and themes was Angkarn Kalayanapongsa (1926–2012), an early recipient of the title National Artist. He was employed as a temple muralist and many of his paintings, some of which are on show in Bangkok’s National Gallery, reflect this experience, typically featuring casts of two-dimensional Ayutthayan-style figures and flying thep in a surreal setting laced with Buddhist symbols and nods to contemporary culture.

Taking this fusion a step further, one-time cinema billboard artist, now National Artist Chalermchai Kositpipat (b. 1955) specializes in temple murals with a modern, controversial, twist. Outside Thailand his most famous work enlivens the interior walls of London’s Wat Buddhapadipa with strong colours and startling imagery. At home, his most famous project is the unconventional and highly ornate all-white Wat Rong Khun in his native Chiang Rai province.

Art galleries and exhibitions

Bangkok has a near-monopoly on Thailand’s art galleries. While the permanent collections at the capital’s National Gallery are disappointing, regular exhibitions of more challenging contemporary work appear at the huge, ambitious Bangkok Art and Cultural Centre; the main art school, Silpakorn University Art Centre; the Queen’s Gallery; and at smaller gallery spaces around the city. The excellent Bangkok Art Map (facebook.com/bangkokartmap) carries exhibition listings. Large-scale art museums in the provinces include the Contemporary Thai Art Centre, part of Silpakorn University’s secondary campus in Nakhon Pathom, and Chiang Mai University Art Museum. For a preview of works by Thailand’s best modern artists, visit the virtual Rama IX Art Museum at rama9art.org.

Aiming for the more secular environments of the gallery and the private home, National Artist Pichai Nirand (b. 1936) rejects the traditional mural style and makes more selective choices of Buddhist imagery, appropriating religious objects and icons and reinterpreting their significance. He’s particularly well known for his fine-detail canvases of Buddha footprints, many of which can be seen in Bangkok galleries and public spaces.

National Artist Pratuang Emjaroen (b. 1935) is famous for his social commentary, as epitomized by his huge and powerful canvas Dharma and Adharma; The Days of Disaster, which he painted in response to the vicious clashes between the military and students in 1973. It picture depicts severed limbs, screaming faces and bloody gun barrels amid shadowy images of the Buddha’s face, a spiked dharmachakra and other religious symbols.

Prolific traditionalist Chakrabhand Posayakrit (b. 1943) is also inspired by Thailand’s Buddhist culture; he is famously proud of his country’s cultural heritage, which infuses much of his work and has led to him being honoured as a National Artist. He is best known for his series of 33 Life of the Buddha paintings, and for his portraits, including many depicting members of the Thai royal family.

More controversial, and more of a household name, especially since the opening of his Baan Dam museum in Chiang Rai, National Artist Thawan Duchanee (1939–2014) tended to examine the spiritual tensions of modern life. His surreal juxtaposition of religious icons with fantastical Bosch-like characters and explicitly sexual images prompted a group of outraged students to slash ten of his early paintings in 1971 – an unprecedented reaction to a work of Thai art. Nevertheless, Thawan continued to produce allegorical investigations into the individual’s struggles against the obstacles that dog the Middle Way, prominent among them lust and violence.

Complacency is not a criticism that could be levelled at Vasan Sitthiket (b. 1957), one of Thailand’s most outspoken and iconoclastic artists, whose uncompromising pictures are shown at – and still occasionally banned from – large and small galleries around the capital. A persistent crusader against the hypocrisies of establishment figures such as monks, politicians, CEOs and military leaders, Vasan’s is one of the loudest and most aggressive political voices on the contemporary art scene, expressed on canvas, in multimedia works and in performance art.

Equally confrontational is fellow Biennale exhibitor, the photographer, performance artist and social activist Manit Sriwanichpoom (b. 1961). Manit is best known for his “Pink Man” series of photographs in which he places a Thai man (his collaborator Sompong Thawee), dressed in a flashy pink suit and pushing a pink shopping trolley, into different scenes and situations in Thailand and elsewhere. The Pink Man represents thoughtless, dangerous consumerism and his backdrop might be an impoverished hill-tribe village (Pink Man on Tour; 1998), or black-and-white shots from the political violence of 1973, 1976 and 1992 (Horror in Pink; 2001).

Women artists tend to be less high profile in Thailand, but in 2007 Pinaree Sanpitak (b. 1961) became the first female recipient of the annual Silpathorn Awards for established artists. Pinaree is known for her interest in gender issues and for her recurrent use of a female iconography in the form of vessels and mounds, often exploring the overlap with Buddhist stupa imagery. She works mainly in multimedia; her “Vessels and Mounds” show of 2001, for example, featured installations of huge, breast-shaped floor cushions, candles and bowls.

Among the younger faces on the Thai art scene, Thaweesak Srithongdee (b. 1970) blends surrealism and pop culture with the erotic and the figurative, to cartoonlike effect. He is preoccupied with popular culture, as is Jirapat Tatsanasomboon (b. 1971), whose work plays around with superheroes and cultural icons from East and West, pitting the Ramayana’s monkey king, Hanuman, against Spiderman in Hanuman vs Spiderman, and fusing mythologies in The Transformation of Sita (after Botticelli). Alex Face (born Patcharapol Tangruen, 1982) is one of Thailand's first collectable street artists, employing plenty of wit and humour in his usually indirect political commentary.

< Back to Context