| The Straight Times: Tuesday, October 17, 2000 Singapore | |||
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Laotian Art Painting from memory Thep Thavansouk captures his Laotian childhood on Canadian soil, and does so in the tradition of the Greats
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ART IMAGES
FROM A MONSOON COUNTRY
By SIAN E. JAY WHAT does a Laotian artist who settles in Canada paint? In the case of Thep Thavansouk, he dreams of home and expresses the enduring ties that bind him to his roots, and splashes those feelings and memories across his canvases. He recognises that his heart and soul are now in Canada but it is to Laos that he still turns for inspiration: the forests and people, the temples and monks who were so much part of his childhood and young adulthood, part of the time before he emigrated. His portrayals of the monks are those seen from the eyes of a child, the upper part of their bodies cut off, so we are left with the sense of gentleness and solemnity in their movements. The ethnic minorities he portrays appear frozen in a sense of timelessness. His early art training, full of the colour and feeling of the French School, also comes through strongly in much of his work. The smatter and scatter effects of pointillism surfaces in some of his work while the pure joy of colour experimentation in the great Impressionist works emerge in others. |
It
would be misleading, though, to think that his work is simply that of
a painter working in tthe style of the Greats. For his work reflects his
own interpretation and reactions to their inspiration. It is intriguing that Pop and Op art, so dominant in America in the 1960s when the artist was pursuing his studies in New York State, have not left their mark. The American art movement may have failed to move Thep, but the effects of some of the oils surely suggest that there is more than a touch of this legacy. Thep recalls numerous visits to the Chinese and Japanese art collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and training under masters front these art traditions. The impact of the great classical arts of Asia are more readily perceived in Thep's work especially in one group of paintings. A series of watercolours, pastels and ink on paper are Laotian in their subject matter, but are clearly influenced by classical Chinese ideals in painting. Rather than use the space to depict typical landscapes, though, Thep chooses instead to express the power of nature, and of man's insignificance beside it. Tiny human figures appear stranded at the bottom of the paintings, while the weight and magnitude of the heavens or of a thick forest, tower above them. Thep displays several distinct styles in his work, styles that cut across cultural boundaries. For someone who has roots in Asia, but has spread his branches in the Americas, the work may well be a reflection of someone who ultimately belongs to two worlds. |
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