The hierarchy for which Thai society is known vanishes in the exhibition “Born from the Earth”, in which Sompop Burtarad’s portraits of His Majesty the King and a humble farmer hang at the same level. And the remarkable images are actually rendered with paint made from soil.
The show at the National Gallery also features pictures of the venerable monks Prayudh Payutto and Phra Paisal Visalo, social activist Sulak Sivaraksa and musician Surachai Chanthimatorn, among many others.
“Everyone is equal – we’re all born from the earth and we all ultimately return to the earth,” says the 59-year-old Sompop.
In all there are 34 portraits, massive at two-by-2.5 metres, as well as a pair of landscapes and two installations, and the common ingredient is soil – sand, clay and farm-grade dirt collected at places around the Kingdom.
Sompop is known mainly for his colourful paintings of women celebrating Songkran, sometimes bare-breasted, and his “Nang Fah” (“Goddess”) series in which actress Bongkoj “Tuk” Khongmalai appears as a divine creature in traditional attire.
The new portraits are more serious, infused with Buddhist teachings that are “hidden” within the texture of the faces. In place of feminine beauty you see the wrinkles of laughter and worry delineated in the monotone of the soil.
Sompop grew up among the farmlands of Maha Sarakham but, after graduating from Silpakorn University, lived and worked for a while in London. He and National Artists Chalermchai Kositpipat and Panya Vijinthanasarn did the elaborate mural at the Buddhapadipa temple there in the mid-1980s.
He’s often used natural materials in his art, but only began testing earth pigments in 2004, after finding his homeland becoming enfolded in globalisation.
He did a portrait of his Uncle Saad, a medicine man, since deceased. It’s in the current exhibition, all wrinkles, wispy grey hairs and sad eyes, a raw depiction but impressive. Sompop still feels sombre about it. The old man, who always went around barefoot, died after being struck by a car.
His next subjects were his father and mother, Boonmee and Thongbor, and his grandfather Satien. Every time he goes home he does portraits of the plain and good people there. Musician Sombat Simhlar plays Isaan’s version of the mouth organ, the khaen. Ken Dalao, Boonpeng Paipewchaim and Chaweewan Damnoen sing mor lam. Somporn is the farmer in the show, and his daughter Khwanta is also represented.
In Chaiyaphum, Sompop painted Nab, a mor yaa – another master of traditional medicine. He also painted a couple of the musicians from the songs-for-life band Caravan, Surachai “Nga Caravan” Chantimathorn and Mongkol “Wong Caravan” Utok.
His Isaan sitters were the stars of a precursor exhibition titled “Drawn with Earth: Isaan Treasure”, held at Khon Kaen University in 2009.
“I like paying homage to these teachers who devote themselves to the land,” Sompop says.
Perhaps the most poignant homage is his painting of Seub Nakhasathien, the conservationist who died in 1990. The picture has been exhibited several times before, notably at the Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary in Uthai Thani.
In recent years Sompop painted His Majesty, the inspiring monks Prayudh Payutto and Phra Paisal Visalo, National Artist Naowarat Pongpaiboon and the influential economist and educator Puey Ungpakorn.
Sompop is accustomed to painting in oil and acrylic but enjoys the challenge of using soil pigments. “It’s fun and experimental. The soil in different areas has different colours and textures. I always collect samples wherever I go, and when I get home I put them in plastic bags with water for a few days before using them.”
For those of us not so observant, the clay in Maha Sarakham is an orange-pink and the sand yellow. You can get red earth in Khon Kaen – from Moh Din Daeng, aka Red Earth Hill, as a matter of fact. For the darkest pigments you need clay from the bottom of a pond.
“I love the texture of clay and the way it cracks,” Sompop says. “It’s perfect for portraits of hard-working or older people because it captures their facial emotions so well.”
The pigments are a mix of sand, clay, glue made from sticky rice and a Latex adhesive. He paints with quick strokes and uses a palette knife and twigs to build texture.
Of the installations in the show, “The Earth Chedi I” is made from the yellow clay of Maha Sarakham and represents the appeal of rural life, and “The Earth Chedi II” is city detritus coated in red earth.
Sompop has enjoyed great success with his usual style of paintings. Boonchai Bencharongkul of the Museum of Contemporary Art owns dozens, and it was he who commissioned the “Nang Fah” series featuring Tuk, Boonchai’s wife.
The earth paintings are a harder sell, however. Only one so far has been a commission – Mahidol University had him do a gigantic portrait of Prince Mahidol holding Princess Galyani Vadhana for its museum in Nakhon Pathom.
“That commission made me very happy because there are so few people who admire this style of art,” Sompop says. He earned “less than a million”, he reveals candidly.
Still, the “clay collection” is going to have a home of its own when Sompop builds a private museum in Maha Sarakham. The facility will house hundreds of abstracts and landscapes done in soil pigments, along with another 1,000 works created over the past three decades.
Phra Paisal Visalo, one of those portrayed, points out in a catalogue note the exhibition’s underlying messages.
“This show reminds us to respect the earth and realise the value of the principles,” the revered monk writes. “At the same we see the truth revealed that everyone comes from the earth. Man or woman, monk or layman, high status or low – these are merely social presumptions. Do not celebrate that illusion, because we are all the same, born from the earth and ultimately going back to the earth.”
DUST TO DUST
n “Born from the Earth” runs until Sunday at the National Gallery. It’s open Wednesday to Sunday from 9am to 4pm.
n For more details, check www.Facebook.com/|TheNationalGalleryBangkok.
This source first appeared on The Nation Life.