Kingdom loses pioneer of Thai conceptual art
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National Artist Chalood Nimsamer passed away early yesterday at Siriraj Hospital after succumbing to a blood infection. He was 86 and is survived by his only daughter.
Chalood studied under Professor Silp Bhirasri, known as the father of modern Thai art, receiving a bachelor’s degree from Silpakorn University in Bangkok and going on to earn a diploma in fine arts from the Accademia di Belle Arti in Italy before studying lithography at the Pratt Graphic Centre in New York.
As a multi-disciplinary artist, Chalood was renowned as a master of various forms. He was recognised with a slew of prestigious awards and his works feature in the collections of private and public museums in Thailand and abroad. He was named a National Artist in Sculpture in 1998.
Regarded as a pioneer of the Kingdom’s conceptual art movement, Chalood created the “Rural Environmental Sculpture” series in 1982. Also renowned as an art educator, Chalood founded the departments of Graphic Arts and Thai Art at Silpakorn University, where he taught from the time he graduated up until last week, when he was admitted to hospital.
In 2013, the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre hosted “Chalood’s Mural Painting and Retrospective” – his last major exhibition. Chalood’s masterpieces are lodged in his private collection as well as at Silpakorn University and the private Museum of Contemporary Art owned by IT tycoon Boonchai Bencharongkul.
The funerary bathing ritual will be held at 5pm on Sunday at Wat Thepsirin.
