The interplay of the local and the global in contemporary Thai art, as artists strive for international recognition and a new meaning of the national. Since the 1990s, Thai contemporary art has achieved international recognition, circulating globally by way of biennials, museums, and commercial galleries. Many Thai artists have shed identification with their nation; but “Thainess” remains an interpretive crutch for understanding their work. In this book, the curator and critic David Teh examines the tension between the global and the local in Thai contemporary art. Writing the first serious study of Thai art since 1992 (and noting that art history and criticism have lagged behind the market in recognizing it), he describes the competing claims to contemporaneity, as staked in Thailand and on behalf of Thai art elsewhere. He shows how the values of the global art world are exchanged with local ones, how they do and don't correspond, and how these discrepancies have been exploited. How can we make sense of globally circulating art without forgoing the interpretive resources of the local, national, or regional context? Teh examines the work of artists who straddle the local and the global, becoming willing agents of assimilation yet resisting homogenization. He describes the transition from an artistic subjectivity couched in terms of national community to a more qualified, postnational one, against the backdrop of the singular but waning sovereignty of the Thai monarchy and sustained political and economic turmoil. Among the national currencies of Thai art that Teh identifies are an agricultural symbology, a Siamese poetics of distance and itinerancy, and Hindu-Buddhist conceptions of charismatic power. Each of these currencies has been converted to a legal tender in global art—signifying sustainability, utopia, the conceptual, and the relational—but what is lost, and what may be gained, in such exchanges?

Over the last 20 years, intensive research has shed new light on Thailand's ancient pre-Tai era, a period that spanned from the 3rd millennium BC to the 13th century AD. This illustrated book, by a renowned authority on the subject, presents a survey of early Thai art.

In this lavishly illustrated new study, Henry Ginsburg describes a wide range of Thai manuscripts and other documents in European and North American collections, discussing each in its religious and historical context. It contains an impressive compilation of maps, letters, photographs, and manuscripts that will make it a valuable reference tool for the Southeast Asia scholar, while its colorful illustrations will appeal to a wider audience interested in Thai culture.

The Present Book, Thai Art With Indian Influences, Studies The Subject In Its Different Spheres. As A Major Pioneering Scholar In The Field, Dr. Promsak Jermsawatdi Possesses An Extraordinary Background In Art History, Aesthetics And Asian History And Philosophy. This Fascinating Study Is One Of His Finest Works Which Will Continue To Be Regarded As One Of The Most Significant Contributions To Our Understanding Of Thai And Indian Art For A Long Time To Come. Divided Into Five Chapters, The Book Takes Into Account Material From The Earliest Archaeological Finds Through The Bangkok Period Including The Early Art And Craft Works. Most Of The Study Deals With Thai Art But India And The Peripheries Of South East Asia Are Covered Where They Reflect Indian Influences. The Focus Of This Study Is Upon Architecture, Sculpture And Iconography. However, It Also Encompasses Other Aspects Of Art And Crafts. Background Information On The History And Geography Of The Area Is Also Provided Along With Philosophical Religious And Social Insights That Are Significantly Valuable To Readers In General And Those Of South-East Asia And India In Particular.As A Student Of Ancient History And Art In India, Dr. Promsak Jermsawatdi Was Deeply Sensitive To The Beauty Of Thai And Indian Art Works. As A Result, The Illustrations He Had Selected Are Unusually Pertinent And Fitting, Comprising Some Of The Most Impressive Examples Of Thai Art. Students Of The History Of Oriental Art Could Ask For No Finer Exposition Of The History And Aesthetics Of Thai And Indian Art. The Author S Penetrating Cultural Insights Make It An Indispensable Text For All Who Plan Further Study In The Field. This Is Also A Book Which General Readers Will Read With Great Interest And Pleasure.

Comics flourished following the publication of the first Thai comics strip in 1907. Artists borrowed elements from European and American publications, such as Punch magazine, and created uniquely Thai mash-ups. In the 1930s, one artist combined E. C. Segar's Popeye with the codes of local 'likay' theatre, while another used the neoclassical realism introduced by Italian painters appointed at the Siamese court to give eerie form to the folklore pantheon of Thai ghosts. During the Cold War era, horror tales, anti-communist propaganda and socially engaged graphic novels bore witness to the country's darker years. Then, in the 1990s, Thai comics struggled to compete with the sudden influx of unlicensed manga from Japan that led to a disregard for local efforts and its current 'forgotten' status. After a hiatus, Thai comics made a comeback in the late '90s with a quirky, alternative scene that deserves wider international recognition. Beautifully designed and bursting with stories - from 20th-century interpretations of age-old Buddhist legends to tales of modern-day millennial angst - 'The Art of Thai Comics' opens an enlightening and visually spectacular window onto the country's history, culture and creativity. In doing so, it reinstates Thai comics into the wider story of global comics art.

'Flavours' offers a taste of the contemporary art scene in Thailand, a country with strong traditions but which is rapidly modernising. The text includes career profiles of 23 artists.

In this lavishly illustrated new study, Henry Ginsburg describes a wide range of Thai manuscripts and other documents in European and North American collections, discussing each in its religious and historical context. It contains an impressive compilation of maps, letters, photographs, and manuscripts that will make it a valuable reference tool for the Southeast Asia scholar, while its colorful illustrations will appeal to a wider audience interested in Thai culture.