May 2006 125th Issue

Hua Hin Events

Stamford International University organised a Songkran celebration on April 11th 2006 at the University. Pictured is Khun Ruayrin Kasattri, Assistant President giving her blessings to the students.

The Executives and GM of the Hua Hin Marriott Resort & Spa celebrating the Ciao Italian Restaurant's inclusion into the Thailand Tatler “Best Restaurants 2006” guide.

Another Songkran soaking in Hua Hin, this time outside the newly opened Hua Hin Property Care offices in Naresdanri Road

One hundred and eighty! The proud recipients of the Darts League trophies at the end of a long and gruelling season, in the Road Hole.

Sizzler comes to Hua Hin! The Grand Opening of the restaurant in the recently opened Hua Hin Market Village

Hua Hin Online by HHAD

Property still seems to be the hottest topic of the month with more discussions on the current market and future predictions on growth or decline. Re-sale of houses is also becoming an issue for a few concerned readers as prices continue to climb along with the number of houses for sale in the area.

On the subject of hot topics is the weather, one day Hua Hin experiences blistering sun soaked days and the next can be torrential downpours and the associated flooding that comes with them. Songkran stories and experiences are also exchanged as the damp day in Hua Hin comes under the spotlight.

Our research team were busy trying to track down information on the up and coming Heineken Hua Hin Jazz Festival 2006 to be held on the 2nd to the 4th of June. If it's half as good as last year we're in for a treat! There were more discussions on the approaching World Cup finals and what bars will be showing the games.

More shopping questions are posed as readers hunt for everything from used cars to big clothes to decent plumbers. On the feeding front are discussions on finding Indonesian and Southern style food in Hua Hin with opinions on the new “light” beers that are appearing in Thai fridges now. We welcome La Grappa Italian restaurant to our sponsors list.

Plenty more travel tales with Bangkok taxis, trips to Samui and visiting Bangsaphan mentioned. Also thoughts are shared on a ferry service between Hua Hin and Pattaya, a few businesses have threatened to start one up but we have yet to hear of anything solid.

HHAD forums are the definitive online message boards and discussions for the area, there are sections for finding and booking accommodation, seeking out bargains, and exploring the local area and beyond. There is also a nightlife section for the night owls, a restaurant and feeding guide along with an online meeting point for visa runners and clubs. The ever popular “Ask the expats” section is great for quickly getting the answers you need from the people that live here.

Logon and find out what is happening in Hua Hin:

Jazz

The 5th annual Hua Hin Jazz Festival is due to take place from 2nd - 4th June, and some details have now been announced. Last year more than 20,000 people descended on Hua Hin to experience ‘Jazz On The Beach', and the event is becoming a landmark on the music calendar worldwide. This year more big names have agreed to appear, with Bill Bruford being one of the best known, Malene Mortensen being another. Regular at the event Koh Mr Saxman will also appear, along with many other young up and coming jazz talent. Full details will appear in next month's Observer, and can also be found at http://www.heinekenthai.com.

Important Information

All foreign visitors to Thailand should be aware that last month the penalty for overstaying in the Kingdom has been increased. The daily fine has been increased from 200 baht to 500 baht, although the maximum possible fine remains the same at 20,000 baht. Readers should avoid overstaying what their visa allows, and if in doubt should either contact their own embassy or the Thai immigration authorities; there is an immigration office at the main police station in Hua Hin.

Obituary

In loving memory of Du, who died at 23.00 on 19 March 2006 in San Paulo hospital after a short illness.

He will be remembered by Hua Hin residents and tourists alike as a talented musician who played nightly in J.Gene (Takeang) Pub and Mr. Torr Steak House with the Stone Band.

Du was a generous, open, friendly man who will be sadly missed by his many friends in the Thai and ex-pat communities, his fellow musicians and his girlfriend, mother and young son.

He will live on in our hearts and minds.

Humanity Wrap

It would be an understatement to say the election week was more about heat than light. But like it or not, the rough and tumble of urban abuse is now very much part of our current tapestry of democracy. To be honest, it's somehow liberating to be part of a media organisation that has not just been covering the news but making it and living it. We should consider ourselves frontline-fortunate. Despite the regrettable casualty.

I was not on roster for the real dinger on the Thursday. I was on the Skytrain headed for Paragon where thousands were suffering gross retail deprivation. Beep beep. “Is it crowded on the train?” “Crowded? It's like Schindler's List in here. And the demo's almost over.”

I called one of the farang staff at The Nation about 3pm. How are things? “Oh, just stellar,” she replied. “Its not exactly Paris outside, but then its hardly Helms Deep in here either. Still, the guy with the megaphone on the truck has a temper like a spanked cat. It's a worry.”

She wasn't allowed out - for her own safety – and for someone who was brought up in Daniel Cohn-Bendit's riot-wracked Paris in the late 60s and has been involved in demanding social work in Bangladesh and Cambodia, she bristled at that, and was an anecdote away from calling security to call someone in authority to let her out. Or there'll be trouble. Then she added: “You know, I couldn't imagine living anywhere else and I can't even imagine living here.”

There has also been some confusion about certain events, so in the interests of objective journalism, here are the facts: The rumour that a large banner was hung from The Nation editorial window reading: “Help! Send Lawyers, Guns and Money”, while we were in, ahem, “Bangnagrad mode” is simply not true. It actually read: “Help! The Air-cons Are Stuffed. Send Iced Champagne and Oysters.”

It is also incorrect that we negotiated a settlement that included giving every protester Bt500 and free Nation caps. What we said was, here's a free Nation cap, now please go away - or we'll unleash the Chihuahuas.

However, we do give credence to the story that four hours after the bussed-in toughed-up crowd had dispersed, one pro-Thaksin member was a found in a bush near the entrance with his middle finger stuck in an empty beer bottle. On waking, he rubbed his eyes, and said. “Wow, great band!” - and promptly fell back into the greenery.

I often wonder why people aspire to hang off the coat tails of the elite. What's the attraction? They live such soft lives; everything is done for them, and most of them haven't picked up anything heavier than a credit card in their entire existence.

You have an army of maids and a privileged, gardened, chauffeured life. All very agreeable I'm sure, but I wouldn't want one of them next to me in a trench when the firing started. For when the going gets tough, the pampered fly out. I still believe that to get the best out of Thai society, you don't go up where it's camp and empty. You go in, where it's real and full.

Still, I've always been partial to the Italian approach to life, especially their “dolce far niente” – the art of doing very little as elegantly as possible. But you don't have to be part of the elite to experience it. Just Italian.

A few of us are thinking of starting a new political party called “The New Chivalry - putting romance back into politics!” As part of our agenda we realise that today, men and women are trained and qualified rather than educated and civilised, and this is something we'd like to reverse, or at least balance. We also think there a few small things that could be done in central Bangkok to make it more attractive. Cherry trees. Women dressed as pirates. Female police on roller blades. A large, rainproof, geodesic dome over the World Trade area, which would include Puffins. And Swim-up bars.

And we've only just begun.

“Without the invasion we would probably have Uday Hussein running Iraq now. It's a lovely thought - “rotten.com” says that to get an idea what Uday was like, “just imagine his father, Saddam Hussein, without all the self-restraint and sanity.” John K.C. Lewis, Department of Physics & Physical Oceanography Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland.

Art & Culture

Modern Art Movements

The first in our occasional series of features on art and culture focuses on the Modern Art movements, which began in the 19th century, with an overview of how these developed, and in this issue, a more detailed look at Romanticism and Realism, which were the accepted forms of art prior to the earliest of these movements, followed by the first Modern Art movement, Impressionism. In future features we will look at some of the other movements, how they developed out of their predecessors and how they influenced future movements.

Modern Art is a general term used for most of the artistic production from the late 19th century until approximately the 1970s. (Recent art production is more often called Contemporary art or Postmodern art). Modern art refers to the then new approach to art where it was no longer important to represent a subject realistically - the invention of photography had made this function of art obsolete. Instead, artists started experimenting with new ways of seeing, with fresh ideas about the nature, materials and functions of art, often moving further toward abstraction.

HISTORY - ROOTS IN THE 19th CENTURY

Modern art began as a Western movement, particularly in painting and printmaking, and then expanding to other visual arts, including sculpture and architecture in the mid-19th century. By the late 19th century, several movements that were to be influential in modern art had begun to emerge: Impressionism, centred around Paris, and Expressionism, which first emerged in Germany.

The influences were varied: from exposure to Eastern decorative arts, particularly Japanese printmaking, to the colouristic innovations of Turner and Delacroix, to a search for more depiction of common life, as found in the work of painters such as Millet. At the time, the generally held belief about art is that it should be accurate in its depiction of objects, but that it should be aimed at expressing the ideal, or the domestic. Thus the most successful painters of the day worked either through commissions, or through large public exhibitions of their own work. There were official government sponsored painters' unions, and governments regularly held public exhibitions of new fine and decorative arts.

Thus, breaking with idealization and depiction were not merely artistic statements, but decisions with social and economic results.

These movements did not necessarily identify themselves as being associated with progress, or personal artistic freedom, but instead argued, in the style of the times, that they represented universal values and reality. The Impressionists argued that people do not see objects, but only the light that they reflect, and therefore painters should paint in natural light rather than in studios, and should capture the effects of light in their work.

Impressionist artists formed a group to promote their work, which, despite internal tensions, was able to mount exhibitions. The style was adopted by artists in different nations, in preference to a “national” style. These factors established the view that it was a “movement”. These traits: establishment of a working method integral to the art, establishment of a movement or visible active core of support, and international adoption, would be repeated by artistic movements in the Modern period in art.

EARLY 20TH CENTURY

Among the movements that flowered in the first decade of the 20th century were Fauvism, Cubism, Expressionism and Futurism.

World War I brought an end to this phase, but indicated the beginning of a number of anti-art movements, such as Dada and the work of Marcel Duchamp, and of Surrealism. Also, artist groups like de Stijl and Bauhaus were seminal in the development of new ideas about the interrelation of the arts, architecture, design and art education.

Modern art was introduced to the United States with the Armory Show in 1913, and through European artists who moved to the U.S. during World War I. It was only after World War II, though, that the U.S. became the focal point of new artistic movements. The 1950s and 1960s saw the emergence of Abstract Expressionism, Pop art, Op art and Minimal art; in the late 1960s and the 1970s, Land art, Performance art, Conceptual art and Photorealism emerged.

Around that period, a number of artists and architects started rejecting the idea of “the modern” and created typically Post modern works.

Starting from the post-World War II period, fewer artists used painting as their primary medium; instead, larger installations and performances became widespread. Since the 1970s, new media art has become a category in itself, with a growing number of artists experimenting with technological means such as video art.

ROMANTICISM

Romanticism was a secular and intellectual movement in the history of ideas that originated in late 18th century Western Europe. It stressed strong emotion (which now might include trepidation, awe, and horror as aesthetic experiences), the individual imagination as a critical authority (which permitted freedom within or from classical notions of form in art), and overturning of previous social conventions, particularly the position of the aristocracy. There was a strong element of historical and natural inevitability in its ideas, stressing the awe of “nature” in art and language and the experience of sublimity through a connection with nature. An influence upon the Romantic movement by the ideologies and events of the French Revolution is thought to have characterized the movement. Romanticism is also noted for its elevation of the achievements of what it perceived as misunderstood heroic individuals and artists that altered society altogether. It followed the Enlightenment period and was in part inspired by a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms from the previous period, as well as a reaction against the rationalism of nature by the Enlightenment.

REALISM

Realism in art and literature is the depiction of subjects as they appear, without embellishment or interpretation. It was also a mid-19th century cultural movement with its roots in France.

In the visual arts and literature, Realism started as a cultural movement in France as a reaction to the idealism of Romanticism in the middle of the 19th century in a cultural climate of demands for social and political reform and democracy. Realism dominated the arts in France, England and the United States from around 1840 to 1880.

The realists sought to render everyday characters, situations, dilemmas, and events; all in an “accurate” (or realistic) manner. Realism began as a reaction to romanticism, which treated subjects idealistically. Realists tended to discard theatrical drama and classical forms of art to depict commonplace or ‘realistic' themes.

The main groups associated with realism are the Realists who depended on scientific facts, and with nature and life around them rather than creating idealistic works of art (romanticism), a group of French landscape artists who emphasized art constructed from nature known as the Barbizon School, and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which praised art before Raphael, who lived in a time where art was quite idealized.

Trompe l'oeil, a technique that creates the illusion that the objects depicted actually exist, is an extreme example of artistic realism.

Among the important French realists are:

Karl Briullov - Camille Corot - Ilya Yefimovich Repin - Gustave Courbet - Honoré Daumier - Edgar Degas (later associated with Impressionism) - Édouard Manet (later associated with Impressionism) - Jean-François Millet - Nikolai Ge

END OF 19th CENTURY

ROMANTICISM (the Romantic movement). Francisco de Goya, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

REALISM - Gustave Courbet

IMPRESSIONISM - Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet,

Claude Monet

POST-IMPRESSIONISM - Georges Seurat

SYMBOLISM - Gustave Moreau

LES NABIS.

Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec played a special role during this period, with their highly experimental and individual works.

Important pre- or proto-modern sculptors: Aristide Maillol, Auguste Rodin

EARLY 20th CENTURY (BEFORE WWI)

ART NOUVEAU and national variants (Jugendstil, Modern Style, Modernisme) - Alphonse Mucha, Gustav Klimt,

In Architecture and Design: Otto Wagner, Wiener Werkstaette, Josef Hoffmann, Adolf Loos, Koloman Moser

EXPRESSIONISM - James Ensor, Oskar Kokoschka, Edvard Munch, Emil Nolde

FAUVISM - André Derain, Henri Matisse, Maurice de Vlaminck and others.

DIE BRÜCKE - Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

DER BLAUE REITER - Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc

CUBISM - Georges Braque, Juan Gris, Fernand Léger,

Pablo Picasso

ORPHISM - Robert Delaunay, Jacques Villon

FUTURISM - Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà

DE STIJL - Theo van Doesburg, Piet Mondrian

Sculpture: Henri Matisse, Constantin Brancusi

Photography: Pictorialism, Straight photography

BETWEEN WWI AND WWII

EXPLORATION OF THE FANTASTIC -

Marc Chagall, Henri Rousseau

PITTURA METAFISICA - Giorgio de Chirico, Carlo Carrà

DADA - Jean Arp, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Francis Picabia, Kurt Schwitters

NEW OBJECTIVITY, GERMANY - Max Beckmann,

Otto Dix, George Grosz

Meanwhile, in France, artists like Henri Matisse,

Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso and Chaim Soutine were part of a regression from the pre-WWI experimentation.

SURREALISM - Jean Arp, Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, René Magritte, André Masson, Joan Miró

CONSTRUCTIVISM - Naum Gabo, László Moholy-Nagy

BAUHAUS - Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee

Sculpture: Alexander Calder, Alberto Giacometti, Henry Moore, Pablo Picasso

AFTER WWII

ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM - Willem de Kooning,

Jackson Pollock

COLOUR FIELD PAINTING - Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko

POST WAR EUROPEAN FIGURATION: Francis Bacon, Jean Dubuffet, Alberto Giacometti, Marino Marini, Henry Moore

COBRA - Pierre Alechinsky, Karel Appel, Asger Jorn

POP ART - Richard Hamilton, David Hockney, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol

NEW REALISM - Fernando Botero, Christo, Yves Klein

HARD-EDGE PAINTING - Ellsworth Kelly, Kenneth Noland

SHAPED CANVAS - Frank Stella

OP ART - Victor Vasarely

ARTE POVERA - Luciano Fabro, Mario Merz, Marisa Merz, Michelangelo Pistoletto

MINIMAL ART - Alexander Calder, Donald Judd,

Sol LeWitt, Richard Serra

LAND ART - Christo, Richard Long, Robert Smithson

PHOTOREALISM - Chuck Close, Duane Hanson

SOVIET ART - Alexander Deineka, Alexander Gerasimov,

Ilya Kabakov, Dubossarski & Winogradow, Komar & Melomid, Collective Action Group

LES AUTOMATISTES - Claude Gauvreau, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Pierre Gauvreau, Fernand Leduc, Jean-Paul Mousseau,

Marcelle Ferron

Interview with artist Tawee Kesa-Ngam

Age (DOB): 41 (28/2/1965)

How long as an artist: 20 years

Marital status: Married to Nang.

Children: 1, boy named Tutap, 8 yrs old

Where did he study: Ubon Ratchathani Vocational College

Pho Chang College of Arts and Crafts, Bangkok

Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok

Lives and works at: Baan Sillapin Art & Antiques Gallery and Studio, Hua Hin. (Opening times 10am – 4pm, closed Mondays.)

On Tuesday 4 th April 2006, the Observer were lucky enough to be able to talk to artist Tawee Kesa-Ngam, probably Thailand's best known contemporary artist. He was born and raised in the North East of Thailand, in Ubon Rachathani, but Hua Hin has been his home now for ten years, since he came here to set up a studio and gallery, and to form the Hua Hin Artists Group. Originally he was close to the town centre, but a couple of years ago he relocated his home, gallery and studio, as well as the base for the Hua Hin Artists Group, to Baan Sillapin, on the Hua Hin to Pala-U waterfall road (see map). His work is now well known in Thailand, and is bought by Thai companies, particularly banks, but also individuals; it is available for purchase at Baan Sillapin, as well as galleries in Bangkok He doesn't do commission work (although he once did, he found it a painful process), and now only works from personal inspiration.

Tawee's childhood was filled with art and artistic endeavours as his whole family were artists of one sort or another – his parents used to make a living through wooden carvings and carpentry (in Thai this is called ‘chiang mai') – and he was given every encouragement, even when it meant extra work for his mother; “When I was young I started by drawing on the walls!” He admits he was lucky in this respect as for many artists this choice of career is not liked by their families because of the difficulty in making a living; “It is not easy to be an artist, and in my second year if I had not been lucky then I would have to go and do something else. But I never had to get a salary (laughs)”. His background is reflected now in his own family – his wife Nang is also an artist, and their son is being given the same encouragement that Tawee himself had – except that he has the luxury of paper to use!

Tawee received formal education and training in Ubon and Bangkok, where he studied all artistic mediums to start with (sculpture, oil painting etc) but graduated towards watercolour painting, which is now his preferred choice, although he does occasionally paint in oils. His styles of painting vary dramatically; from very stylised and detailed paintings through to free flowing, almost abstract landscapes. His favourite artists, and ones who have clearly had an influence on him are the European ones such as Monet and Van Gogh, and the Impressionists in general. He doesn't cite any Asian artists when he talks about his own influences; however in the current art scene he doesn't like to ‘regionalise' art, but would rather call it contemporary art, wherever the artist is from, rather than comparing Western and Asian art. In his words “Art is universal”, and in his paintings he tries to reflect his own (and other) country and tell a local story. He is unequivocal about the major influences on him and his work though; “My parents mainly, followed by the artist groups I was in at college and university, as well as my tutors there.”

He travels around Thailand and other countries to find his subjects, with his most recent trip being to Laos, while he is planning a trip to Vietnam. The current exhibition at Baan Sillapin in conjunction with the Hua Hin Municipality, which runs from 15 th April to 15 th May, has several paintings that came out of the trip to Laos, but also other work produced since 1991. His work is unusual in that he often paints very large watercolours, the largest ever being one spanning 8 metres, and although this one is not in the current exhibition there are several others. He told us of the difficulties this can cause; “Working in watercolour is not the same as oil; you have much less room for mistakes and need a very steady hand and a lot of concentration, particularly on the detailed pieces. In oil you can paint over mistakes but in watercolour you cannot. Also you cannot paint white colour in watercolour, so you have to plan that, leaving the parts of the white canvas blank where you need it first.”

His normal work process is to go to the locations he has chosen and sketch his subjects, before returning to his studio to work on the paintings, although sometimes he will paint from memory; “Whenever I work I will paint one set around one theme, for example (Bamboo Hut) I painted 40 pieces of that.” He says he often works totally undisturbed for several weeks or months, depending on how the pieces are progressing; however he adds, “The studio is open every day except Monday, and people can come and watch me work – I am not bothered by that.” As far as developing as an artist, his myriad of styles is impressive; “Every artist wants to develop. I have to learn all the time, by reading. Art is not just about the hand but about your thinking too. You have to think where your artwork is going. It is not easy for the artist to develop and create a ‘masterpiece', and really it is up to other people to say whether something I have done is good or not good. Every year I have to show at least two times my work to people because I need to hear what they think.” He admits that he isn't always completely happy when he has finished a piece; “It is difficult to say. When I think I have finished a painting I like to get a critique from someone else, like my wife, but with watercolour it is not easy to fix any mistakes, and I will sometimes leave a painting even if it is not ‘perfect' for me”. When we asked if there was one piece he was particularly proud of, his response was simple; “You know I like every one I have done.”

We asked him about the Thai art scene; “It is quite small but getting better. We have 60 million people but only about 300 ‘working' artists in the country.” He pointed out that there are a lot of talented painters in Thailand, but “an artist is different from the painter. There are many good and skilful painters in Thailand but art has to come from the inside, the painting has to be original not just by copying other work. These painters have good hands but are not thinking about their work.” Tawee feels that artists should try and reflect cultural, social and political issues in their work; “I have many paintings talking about the political situation in Thailand, right now I have a big piece about the problems in the South.” Any advice for aspiring artists, and for people wanting some help to appreciate art? “Come and look at my paintings and talk to me, or other artists. Don't think too much about it, and let your feeling come first.”

What future projects does he have planned? “Other than the trip to Vietnam, we have a big project coming up in December for His Majesty the King's birthday. About 300 artists will come to Hua Hin over a two week period to paint images and landscapes of Hua Hin, and they will be displayed in the new Hua Hin Market Village.” He feels that it will be a very nice tribute to the monarch as “the King is a very good artist”. Anyone who is interested in this project, or anything else about Tawee Kesa-Ngam should contact him, either at the Gallery, or by telephone on 09-8266189 or 09-0690896. Anyone who is in Hua Hin should make the effort to go to the Gallery, as it is in a lovely setting and is a few hours of tranquillity and culture that will brighten your day. You may even find yourself going home with an original piece of art!

Art Exhibition

By Tawee Kesa-Ngam

(1991 – 2006)

15 th April – 15 th May 2006, 10 am – 5 pm, closed every Monday.

At Baan Sillapin Art & Antique Gallery,

81 Moo 14, Hua Hin-Pala-U Road,

Hin Lek Fai,

Hua Hin,

Prachuapkirikhan, 77110

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