Tradition and Modernity
in South East Asian Art
Contrasting Visions of Time & Place from Thailand & Myanmar

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       This unique exhibition brings together three enigmatic figures within South East Asian art. Regarded as one of Burma’s most respected senior artists, Burmese master U Lun Gywe has been at the forefront of his nation’s embattled arts scene for the last half century. He is joined by Jirapat Tasanasomboon and Therdkiat Wangwarcharakul, two burgeoning voices within Thailand’s vibrant arts community.
       Their art is testament to the continuing breadth and diversity of Asian art as something more significant and long rooted than the art world’s recent predilection for all things Asian. U Lun Gywe has been creating steadily since the late 1950s, and while Jirapat and Therdkiat are only in their mid-thirties, both artists display a mature sensibility to issues shaping the future of their nation.
       With over four decades separating the senior Burmese artist from his younger Thai neighbours, it’s hardly surprising that their themes share little commonality. U Lun Gywe practices his art amidst the political repression of the Burmese dictatorship, unable even if willing to visualise any consternation of his country’s plight, or perhaps choosing paint as a way to escape Burma’s continuing troubles.
       Meanwhile across the border in Thailand, Jirapat and Therdkiat have more freedom to bring contemporary politics and social commentary into their idiosyncratic paintings, and by doing so draw attention to indeterminable effects that tourism and rapid modernisation are bringing upon their countrymen.
       What all three artists do all share is an acute awareness and sensibility to western modern art trends and an ability to infuse painterly styles like Impressionism, Social Realism, and Pop, with a distinctly Asian presence. Even though the three artists are stylistically distant, each manages to imbue his art with the spirit and flavour of their respective domains.

       A committed creator four the last fifty years, U Lun Gywe is very much an artist of the old school. Upholding many of the principles dear to impressionism, his art flows with transitory movement celebrating the physicality of life through spontaneous visualisation.
       While impressionist painters were champions of on site documentation, U Lun Gywe typically memorises a scene without making sketches, later recalling the colour and light, as well as sensory and emotive reactions. Adept at capturing the essence of a moment, he fluidly transfers memory to paint with a calm mindfulness born from being a practicing Buddhist.
       Born in 1930, he graduated from Burma’s Art Institute of Teacher Training, before continuing to refine his craft under the tutelage of several of Burma’s pioneering modern masters, including U Thet Win, U Chit Maung, U San Win, U Thein Han and U Ngwe Gaing. A teacher for over two decades, many of Burma’s present generation of artists received their grounding from U Lun Gywe.
       U Lun Gywe exhibits regularly in the Burmese capital Rangoon, and has also participated in several overseas exhibitions, including Australia, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Thailand, and the U.S. His art also hangs in the public collection of the National Museum in Burma and the National Art Gallery of Malaysia.
       Gradually becoming more lucid and rhythmic, dedicated U Lun Gywe is a true master at personifying the vitality of Burmese culture through cacophonous market scenes, idyllic landscapes, and a penchant for sumptuous female forms.

       Highly accessible to the average viewer, Jirapat Tasanasomboon's Pop-style paintings resonate with Thai youth culture, where appropriation and reinvention are readily assimilated. Emanating from a country that readily devours all things western yet is vehemently protective of its own traditional cultural heritage, Jirapat’s art wittily conveys the dilemmas embroiling contemporary urban Thais.
       Born in 1971 in the central province of Samut Prakarn, Jirapat completed his Masters Degree from Silapakorn University in 1999, and has participated in several domestic art shows as well as Korea.
       Previously his art was besieged by an allegiance of American comic book heroes whom have been resuscitated recently for an onslaught of major Hollywood adaptations. Melding traditional figures from Thai mythology against cape-clad crusaders like Wonder-woman, Batman, Superman, and Captain America, Jirapat used one-on-one bouts as metaphors for the awkward jarring of East and West, traditional and modern, the U.S.A and Thailand.
       Drawing from his country’s rich tradition for decorative arts, Jirapat’s lavishly adorned icons from the epic Ramakien take contrast against the bold blocks of colour on the costumed superheroes. In several of the works the artist implies the complexities of cross-cultural influence with a lone comic character customised with a touch of local cultural embellishment.
       In his latest works, Jirapat moves beyond mere superheroes becoming more post-modern in his appropriation of popular icons from American movie history, along with western modern art referencing. His own ethnocentric adaptations have also expanded beyond mythic allegory to invoke the flat figurative representational art indicative to historic temple murals and vernacular decoration.

       Therdkiat Wangwarcharakul opines for simpler times. His large scratch painted aluminium surfaces imbue a worn, aged patina, evoking an air of nostalgia that is far from the gritty realism of the modern urban megalopolis of Bangkok.
       Bangkok native Terdkiat was born in 1971 and graduated with a Masters Degree in painting from Silapakorn University in 2003. His unique brand of art has warranted inclusion in several domestic exhibitions as well as Singapore, Japan, the Netherlands, Korea, and Spain. He was also awarded the prestigious Jurors' Choice Prize in the 2000 ASEAN Art Awards.
       In Therdkiat’s Bangkok the urban elite zoom round in air-conditioned luxury cars barely stepping foot on the pot-holed sidewalks of the capital, while the impoverished sun-beaten majority struggle to eke a living in the exhaustive tropical heat.
       Desperate migrants arriving by train from all corners of rural Thailand, many are forced to prop up temporary shanties beside the railway tracks. Lost and lonely, they survive hand-to-mouth by scavenging through garbage, or driving noisy tuk-tuks (motorised three-wheelers) through the city’s polluted, traffic-clogged streets.
       Often devoid of human presence, Therdkiat’s paintings are nevertheless full of emotion. Desolate and abandoned, they are the cruel legacy of an economic progress that hasn’t been fair to all. By utilising metal sheets as his storyboard, the artist customises the cheap building materials used to erect transient slums, as well as presenting a tough modern veneer to juxtapose his humanistic imagery.

Steven Pettifor
Independent curator and critic
Author of Flavours – Thai Contemporary Art