Ankarn's Gifts Still with Us

The family of National Artist Angkarn Kalayanapong has since his death last August been planning a museum devoted to his work, but in the meantime, daughter Ormkaew has put many of his works on view at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre.
Opening tonight at 6 and continuing through April, the exhibition “In Remembrance of Angkarn Kallayanapong’s Paintings and Poetry” reflects his multiple talents, extending to art conservation.
Among the highlights are his early writings, artwork and research into methods of replicating the look of ancient paintings, undertaken in collaboration with mentor and fellow artist Fua Hariphithak (1910-1993), a pioneer of Thai modern art.
“Their most important pieces replicated painted Ayutthaya manuscripts of the Traibhumikatha Buddhist Cosmology,” Ormkaew says. “We also have a collection of poems that my father wrote by hand using a fountain pen which have never been displayed before.”
The black and white Traibhumikatha manuscript on display is the only one remaining in Thailand, on loan from a collector, she says. The Smithsonian Museum in Washington owns another that Angkarn helped execute in 1957.
Ormkaew, who has a master’s degree in cultural management from Thammasat University, explains that the Smithsonian asked the Thai government’s Fine Arts Department to create the painted manuscripts of the mythical cosmology. Fua was assigned to take up the commission and recruited Angkarn, his student, to help him.
“My father drew all 168 pages of the manuscript on glass paper and Ajarn Fua added the colour,” Ormkaew says.
Between 1957 and 1961 Angkarn assisted Fua in research on classical Thai painting techniques, copying temple murals and motifs in Ayutthaya, Sukhothai, Kamphaeng Phet and Phetchaburi. They produced 168 replicas, 24 of which are on display in the exhibition in form of photocopies – the originals have deteriorated but are now being restored.
The show also features nearly a dozen of the works in crayon for which Angkarn became well known in the decade up to 1967, depicting subjects from Buddhism and other Eastern philosophies. You can see “Glass Pavilion”, “Lanthom” and “Standing Buddha”, among other works on loan from private collectors. There are portraits of his family as well, done between 1981 and 2000.
At tonight’s opening, veteran painter Somyos Kamsadeang will demonstrate Angkarn’s technique for drawing in charcoal, which he much admires.
Born in Nakhon Si Thammarat, Angkarn earned a bachelor’s degree in the fine arts at Silpakorn University, where he was a student of Professor Silpa Bhirasri, revered as “the father of Thai modern art”.
Angkarn began writing poems professionally in the late 1950s, his work becoming a model of modern Thai poetry since his ideas and language broke free of traditional patterns.
His most famous poems include “Lamnam Phu Kradueng” (“Phu Kradueng Song”) and “Nirat Nakhon Si Thammarat” (“Nakhon Si Thammarat Travelogue”), both published in 1969, but his best-known piece is “Panithan Kawee” (“The Poet’s Pledge”), which won the SEA Write Award in 1986. In 1989, he was named a National Artist in literature.
Visitors to the show can view earlier poems, from 1957 to 1964, presented on transparent acrylic plates in nine sets. His handwriting, whether rendered with a fountain pen or a simple ballpoint pen, is beautiful, fanciful tails adorning many of the letters. The subjects range from Buddhism, philosophy and art to maternal love and even erotic love.
Angkarn died last August at age 86 after long suffering from diabetes and heart disease. He left a son and two daughters.
  NOT FORGOTTEN
- “In Remembrance of Angkarn Kallayanapong’s Paintings and Poetry” runs until April 30 in the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre’s fourth-floor studio.
- Thepsiri Suksopha and writer Nipon Khamwilai will give the talk “I Remember Angkarn” on April 7 at 1.30pm.
- Find out more at www.BACC.or.th or www.Facebook.com/TheAngkarn.