<b>พระราชาพาให้ศิลปะเกิดใหม่</b><br> Mourning Becomes the Thai People: October 13th and an Artistic Renaissance

บทคัดย่อ

Thai historiography at times uncritically chronicles events according
to a succession of monarchical reigns. That might work with political
history, but when transferred to the domain of the arts, the method can
become an uncomfortable frame. Yet there are exceptions, especially
when a reigning monarch wielded an indisputable influence on artistic
creations of various kinds such as in the case of Rama II, who provided
leadership in the literary, visual and performing arts alike. In 1996 a
group of Thai artists, art historians and curators decided to organize a
mammoth exhibition under the title, “Art in the Reign of Rama IX”, for
which a weighty three-volume catalogue was published, to which I was
asked to contribute an introductory essay called, “The Golden Jubilee

and Five Decades of Thai Visual Arts”. Twenty years have elapsed, and
the exhibition can still be viewed online with one further decade added
to it. The event was meant as a homage, and nobody questions whether
the periodization accords well with the trends and directions of Thai art
as a whole. ... (Continue)