Footnotes

Provenance
Private Collection, Thailand

Pratuang Emjaroen
無題
二〇〇二年作

簽名：๒๕๔๕ (2545/2002)
油彩畫布

來源
泰國私人收藏

My paintings portray all happening in the course of nature and the way of life; be it ugliness or horror, cruelty or love and care; be it joyous smiles or sad tears; be it trouble or peace. All of what one must encounter in life --- my life, your life, anybody's life. It is a total revelation. If you can acknowledge happenings in your life, you can grasp the meaning of my works as easily as seeing and understanding what occurs to yourself both within and without.

On Life and Art, in 5th Dharma Group exhibition catalog (Bangkok : Bhirasri Institute of Modern Art, 1984), p.11.

Honoured in 2005 as a National Artist of Thailand and receiver of many lifetime achievement awards, Pratuang Emjaroen is a giant amongst his peers. In 1971, he founded the Dharma Group, one of Thailand's most prolific and active contemporary artistic movements composed mainly of dissident self-taught artists. Emjaroen's achievements through the years are all the more extraordinary considering his difficult childhood, having had to leave school at a young age to support his family when his father unexpectedly passed away.

Emjaroen has gone through many stages in his career, going from strength to strength, each time reinventing himself and breaking away from his previous successes to embrace an exploration of more profound spiritual and philosophical elements. This current work belongs to the mature period on his long journey of self-discovery, where he has achieved his aspirations through the flowering of his talents and spirit. Bordering on the edge of abstraction, Emjaroen's visual expression fully emerges through aerial and vibrant semi-abstract forms, creating an illuminated explosion of light and colour.