Take an artist home with you

FROM NOW ON, if you see an artwork at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, you can take it home. Well, you can’t take the actual art home, of course (not unless you’ve got loads of cash and good negotiating skills). What you can get is a terrific souvenir of the artwork. 

The art shop on the fifth floor stocks a variety of mementoes inspired by local artists’ works along with all sorts of other items created by art students, designers and independent enthusiasts.

With a retrospective on celebrated abstractionist Ithipol Thangchalok on view until February 21, the shop has limited editions of T-shirts, scarves, iPhone cases, notebooks, postcards and brooches bearing his non-figurative patterns.

“A lot of art lovers who come to see Ajarn Ithipol’s exhibit want something to take home as a memento,” says centre director Luckana Kunavichayanont. “We worked with him to produce these unique and affordable souvenirs in limited editions. We’d done something similar before, with the late National Artist Chalood Nimsamer when he had a retrospective here two years ago, but Ajarn Ithipol is the first with such a broad choice in the items available. 

 “We plan to do this for every exhibition organised by the centre. The artists waive copyright because the proceeds from sales pay for activities at the centre.”

There are limited reproductions of Chalood’s drawings and paintings available, priced from Bt12,000 to Bt15,000. One of the pioneers of Thai conceptual art, he’s well known for the series “Rome Drawings and Abstract Prints”, derived from his studies of intaglio technique in Rome from 1956 to 1958 and of lithography in the US in 1964. 

Chalood captured various locations in Rome and Paris and rendered them using a range of abstract graphic techniques. His “Mural Painting” series, inspired by nature and culture, shows women and children in traditional Thai costume, evoking a sense of purity and gentleness.

Other artists, designers and art students have contributed works for sale, offering interesting alternatives to what’s usually found at the malls. 

One outstanding buy is a limited-edition book published in honour of the late Prayad Pongdam, another National Artist. There are also cushion covers and canvas tote bags bearing his signature images of youngsters and animals. Prayad was one of Thailand’s great printmaking pioneers, constantly drawing on memories of family love and warmth, though the rooster he created is memorable as well since it appeared on a postage stamp.

The centre has small sculptures and monoprints by Inson Wongsam’s too, says Luckana. “They’re normally sold at his studio in Lamphun and he mainly creates large sculptures in wood that not many people can accommodate in their private collections. So we arranged for him to produce five brass mini-sculptures in a limited edition. They’re based on his wooden sculptures and retain the same organic forms.”

Also a National Artist, Inson has long devoted himself to environmentalism, leaving in his woodcuts and sculptures the raw marks of carving and gouging, like the intaglio brushstrokes in a painting, to celebrate the material in its natural state. 

Also on sale is a bronze bust of Silpa Bhirasri, the father of Thai modern art, by Kittichai Teeratwitcha. They made 123 copies last year for what would have been Silpa’s 123rd birthday. 

Then there are T-shirts printed with Sutee Kunavichayanont’s playful images satirising Thainess and the autocracy, including graceful men and women in traditional costumes performing the wai.

  

PICTURE THIS

>>The art shop is on the fifth floor of the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre at the Pathumwan intersection.

>>It’s open Tuesday through Sunday from 10am to 8pm. 

>>Call (02) 214 6630, extension 305, or visit www.BACC.or.th or the “Bacc shop” page on Facebook.