Natee Utarit Demetrio Paparoni NATEE UTARIT Optimism is Ridiculous Contents Cover and Back Cover First published in Italy in 2017 by Photo Credits Special thanks for their support 6 The Perils of Optimism. Passage to the Song of Truth Skira editore S.p.A. © 2017. DeAgostini Picture Library/ and collaboration to and Absolute Equality, 2014 Palazzo Casati Stampa Scala, Firenze: pp. 14 (top), 76, 102 The Art of Natee Utarit (details) via Torino 61 © 2017. Digital image, The Museum Demetrio Paparoni 20123 Milano of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Art Director Italy Firenze: pp. 14 (bottom), 18, Makati Avenue corner Marcello Francone www.skira.net 124 (bottom) De La Rosa Street, Greenbelt Park, Makati City, 147 © 2017. Foto Austrian Archives/ 1224 Philippines Optimism is Ridiculous Design © All rights reserved by Richard Koh Scala, Firenze: p. 90 Luigi Fiore Fine Art, Singapore © 2017. Foto Joerg P. Anders. © 2017 Skira editore for this edition Editorial Coordination Foto Scala, Firenze/bpk, Bildagentur 241 Writings by the Artist © 2017 Demetrio Paparoni for his Vincenza Russo fuer Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte, text Berlin: p. 134 Editing © 2017 Natee Utarit for his works © 2017. Foto Klaus Goeken. 249 Appendix Valeria Perenze and texts Foto Scala, Firenze/bpk, Bildagentur © Joseph Beuys, Juan Muñoz, Layout fuer Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte, by SIAE 2017 Antonio Carminati Berlin: p. 82 Jl. Medan Merdeka Timur No. 14 © Man Ray Trust, by SIAE 2017 Jakarta Pusat 10110 - Indonesia © 2017. Foto Scala, Firenze: pp. 8, Translation © Succession Marcel Duchamp 29 (top left), 34, 48, 116 Natalia Iacobelli by SIAE 2016 © 2017. Foto Scala, Firenze/bpk, © Succession Picasso, by SIAE 2017 Iconographical Research Bildagentur fuer Kunst, Kultur © The Andy Warhol Foundation for Paola Lamanna und Geschichte, Berlin: pp. 38, the Visual Arts Inc., by SIAE 2017 108 (bottom) All rights reserved under © 2017. Foto Scala, Firenze / international copyright conventions. Fondo Edifici di Culto - Ministero 51, Waterloo Street #02-06 No part of this book may be dell’Interno: p. 92 (left) Singapore 187969 reproduced or utilized in any form © 2017. Foto Scala, Firenze - su or by any means, electronic or concessione del Ministero dei Beni e mechanical, including photocopying, delle Attività Culturali e del Turismo: recording, or any information storage pp. 52, 78, 92 (right) and retrieval system, without © 2017. Foto The Philadelphia permission in writing from the Museum of Art/Art Resource/Scala, 2, Jalan Temerloh, publisher. Firenze: p. 29 (top right) Off Jalan Tun Razak, © 2017. Mary Evans/Scala, Firenze: 53200 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Printed and bound in Italy. p. 30 (bottom) First edition © 2017. Museo Nacional del Prado ISBN (Skira editore): © Photo MNP / Scala, Firenze: p. 24 978-88-572-3553-0 © 2017 Tate, London / Foto Scala, ISBN (Richard Koh Fine Art): Firenze: p. 124 (top right) 978-88-572-3787-9 © 2017. The Art Institute of Chicago / Art Resource, NY/ Scala, Firenze: Distributed in USA, Canada, Central p. 60 229, Jalan Maarof & South America by © 2017 The Barnes Foundation: Bukit Bandaraya, Bangsar ARTBOOK | D.A.P. 75 Broad Street p. 28 (top) 59100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Suite 630, New York, NY 10004, © 2017. The National Gallery, USA. London/Scala, Firenze: pp. 23 (left), Distributed elsewhere in the world 30 (top) A special thank you also to by Thames and Hudson Ltd., 181A © 2017. White Images/Scala, Mr. Boon Hui Tan High Holborn, London WC1V 7QX, Firenze: pp. 28 (bottom), 29 (bottom) Director, Asia Society Museum, New York United Kingdom. © Museo Nacional del Prado, Vice President, Global Arts and Cultural Madrid: p. 22 (left) Programmes, New York © Kunstmuseum Basel: p. 110 for all the exhibition texts © Rijksmuseum Amsterdam: p. 58 Artothek/Archivi Alinari: p. 20 Artothek/Archivi Alinari, Hans Hinz: p. 106 Bridgeman Images: p. 143 (bottom) National Gallery, London, Fine Art Images/Archivi Alinari, Firenze: p. 16 Photo © 2017 Christie’s Images / Photo © Paul Maeyaert / Bridgeman Images: p. 140 Bridgeman Images: p. 124 (top left) Photo Timothy Greenfield-Sanders: p. 253 Photo Krisada Suvichakonpong: pp. 26, 32, 33, 42 (top right), 144 Discordant References In his paintings from the Optimism is Ridiculous cycle, begun in 2012, Natee Utarit makes dissonant citation the key element of his aesthetics. The series includes landscapes, still lifes, traditional portraits, the artist’s first polyptychs (Faith Means Not Wanting to Know What is True, 2012 and The Confession, 2013), the entire series of The Altarpieces (2014–16), as well as that of Memento Mori (2016). In each of these paintings, Utarit assembles revisited fragments of works of Western art from the fifteenth through the nineteenth centurie¢s and places them within an architectural space defined in accordance with per- The Perils of Optimism spectival canons of Western painting, which he intermingles with iconographic elements from his own culture, icons of modernism and contemporary art and objects and animals with a high symbolic valence. Despite the fact that the entire composition is a visually coherent whole, when examined individually, The Art of Natee Utarit the figures come forth to ultimately create an effect of temporal engulfment in various historical moments, while not interrupting the work’s sense of unity. It is as if each element, with its own historical baggage, emerged from its re- spective time period creating a chaotic vision of the present. By constructing a narrative, and symbolically connoting the subjects by putting them in rela- tion with one another, Utarit achieves a representation that transcends both his own culture and those which he taps into. Consequently, the geographic DEMETRIO PAPARONI and temporal scenery in his paintings is characterized by a language that is highly aware of the effect that the many cultural and spiritual developments throughout history have had on contemporary man. Born in 1970 in Bangkok, Thailand, where he completed his studies and presently works, Utarit does not belong to the vast group of artists who chose to move to a major Western capital and obtain dual citizenship, and whose work is attributable to both their country of origin and their adoptive country. Despite the numerous references made to language, genres and iconographic themes found in European art, his use of discordant references allows him to fuse the analysis of pictorial language with mythical-religious, political and folk narratives, all of which are related to the present day through narrative expedients and philosophical conceptions that create a dyscrasy between lan- guage and subject. 7 His interest in the dynamics by which the Occident exerted its influence on Southeast Asia, both in lifestyle and art, has led Utarit to focus his atten- tion on the history of Thailand, the only country in the area which avoided Western colonization. Despite having preserved its political independence, be- ginning in the mid-nineteenth century Thai society has been influenced by the political and commercial relations maintained with Great Britain, and by the introduction to a Western academic and legislative system. While promoting this change in an attempt to preserve the country’s independence, King Rama IV sought to introduce Eastern Buddhist values to the West, which claimed to merit a hegemonic position due to the su- periority of its scientific, technological and cultural acquisitions. Utarit has closely observed the experi- ence of painter and Buddhist monk In Khong, who in the mid-nineteenth century was ap- pointed to paint murals in various Buddhist temples by King Rama IV (1804–1868), with whom he had spent a period of time in the monkhood. At a time in which the Siam was to tirelessly defend itself from the pres- sures of Western colonization, the Master In Khong adopted a narrative style reminiscent of its European counterpart in order to il- lustrate certain aspects of Buddhist doctrine. Having no direct knowledge of European art, he relied on reproductions found on labels, postcards and shipping crates for guidance. Hubert and Jan van Eyck In those very years, the end of Japanese isolationism and the reopening of Ghent Altarpiece, 1432 Partial view of the exhibition Optimism Tempera and oil on panel, 350 x 460 cm commerce with the West allowed for the arrival of Japanese artifacts, textiles and upon elements of reflection, every culture has always looked beyond its own is Ridiculous: The Altarpieces St Bavo Cathedral. Ghent prints in Europe, items which fascinated artists who were to start a new course Ayala Museum, Manila, 2017 territorial confines with both interest and suspicion. for European art and which first became fashionable in countries that faced cul- The manner in which faraway cultures are approached has progressively tural exchanges with Japan, or that hosted universal expositions, and later in the changed over the course of the twentieth century, reaching a turning point in entire old continent. the 1980s with the telecommunications revolution, as well as the diffusion of Artists like Manet, Monet, Gauguin, Whistler, Pizarro, Van Gogh, Les satellite TV.1 This milieu placed artists, from both the East and the West, in Nabis and Klimt, among others, took a personal approach to Japanese art, a significantly different condition than that in which they found themselves which led to various outcomes. Just as In Khong had no direct knowledge of between the second half of the nineteenth century and the first half of the the Western art he sought to reproduce, European artists gained an under- twentieth century. standing of Japanese society and landscapes through magnificent imported In a new millennium, and in quite different political conditions than merchandise and prints, giving life to an imaginary Japan. Van Gogh, for in- those in the times of In Khong, Utarit has been able to develop a narrative stance, was convinced that he had found in Provence, in Southern of France, strategy that, at a formal level, capitalizes on his knowledge of his own culture the same colors of Japanese scenery that he had seen in ukiyo-e prints; Monet of origin as well as that of the West.