Footnotes

安尼克 生命之樹 銅雕 約一九五零年代作

Provenance:
Private Collection, USA

Literature:
Prof. Bhirasri, Shilpa. 'Contemporary art in Thailand' in Thai Culture, New Series no. 8, 2006, first ed. 1959, 2006, fig. 5, p. 5.

Exhibited:
9th National Exhibition of Art, Silpakorn University, Bangkok, Thailand, 1958 (awarded the Gold Medal)


In 1958, Tree of Life won the gold medal at the 9th National Exhibition of Art, Silpakorn University, and subsequently served as the prototype for a 3-meter-tall version which was later inaugurated in Bangkok's Lumphini Park. Another version of Tree of Life by Somboon is presently exhibited at the Silpa Bhirasri National Museum, Bangkok.

Anik Somboon has described Tree of Life as a depiction of idealized matrimonial love, which like a tree is alive and needs nurture and care. (Ref. from the artist's presentation catalogue on 'Tree of Life' in Lumpini Park, Bangkok by Prof. Anik Somboon).

Comfortably naked and facing outwards, the couple is separated yet united by a tree. The male figure tenderly leans over his shoulder, offering a lotus to his partner. Arising from muddy waters, the lotus is a universal Buddhist symbol of any creature's ability to achieve enlightenment despite the misdeeds of their past. Diametrically opposed to the Western canon where the Tree of Knowledge damns humankind with original sin, Somboon's Tree of Life shows the potential for renewal and regeneration with the transformative power of love and devotion.

The importance of this piece to contemporary Thai art is embodied by the choice of this figure as an icon adjacent to every page number of Professor S. Bhirasri's esteemed book on the subject, published by the Fine Arts Department. (Prof. Bhirasri, Shilpa. 'Contemporary art in Thailand' in Thai Culture, New Series no. 8, first ed. 1959, 2006, fig. 5, p. 5.)