Siamese for sale
“The Way of Sleeping” by Lampu Kansanoh is rather a standout among the Thai works on the Christie’s auction block in Hong Kong on May 24. The sale of “Southeast Asian Modern and Contemporary Art” is dominated by Filipinos and Malaysians, but has a sound sampling from the Land of Smiles too.
Lampu’s 2006 oil on canvas is expected to fetch upwards of HK$45,000, which is marked down to $6,000 when translated into American.
I also like Yuree Kensaku’s “Truck Driver’s Sweetheart”, same year, same medium (with metal added), roughly the same price, but lacking the same restraint of Lampu’s picture, which I consider a big plus when you’re throwing your psyche around.
This is Prasong Luemuang’s untitled gouache and paper collage, which costs a little more, perhaps HK$80,000 (US$10,000).
Moungthai Busamaro’s “Woman under the Pink Tree” from 2002 is available for considerably less, maybe around US$2,000, but it’s an engaging streetscape that would be fun on any wall.
The other Thais in the auction tread safer territory, although Pornchai Jaima’s “House with Stilts”, above, is full of thoughtful details not evident in this image, and Natee Utarit’s “Still life — Calyces”, below, one of two similar oils she has on sale, could bring more than US$30,000 thanks, no doubt, to its meditative subject and structure.
This is “Ricefield Landscape at Sunset” by ML Poum Malakoul, who died in his 60s in 1973, a pretty good, moody painting.
Dow Wasiksiri, who’s in his 50s, has a couple of clever “pigment prints” made from photographs in the sale. This is “Happiness”, a gem of a classic scene from a roadside toilet.
The other, not pictured here, is “Security”, which seems to have caught a security guard who’s nonchalantly folded a piece of corrugated cardboard beneath his cap as a sun visor. The beauty is in the fact that the cardboard happens to bear the colours of the Thai flag. Security, indeed.
Also in the Christie’s auction are Chalood Nimsamer’s ink and watercolour “A Single Dancer” and Suchao Sisganes’ oil “Buffalo in the Field”.
