-
Accession number
-
0000-1063-0-CS *Missing inscriptions (need to flip the work over)
-
Title
-
Untitled (14 October)
-
Description
-
In this monumental self-portrait, the artist sits facing the viewer directly, with his knees spread open and his arms resting on his thighs. His hands are missing and in place of his eyes are two glowing, white orb. Slender, impasto strokes of red, orange, yellow, and black paint are applied to the canvas in expressive, zigzagging strokes, scribbles and hatch lines, defining the contours of the artist's body and creating a ragged, textured surface that seems almost as if it were marred by scars. Handfuls of red paint are smeared over parts of the backdrop, which is largely occupied by columns of pseudo-calligraphic forms.
Painted in the wake of the brutal crackdown on students and protesters on October 14, 1973, this self-portrait is a visceral record of the artist's anguish, indignation, and helplessness in the face of political violence. Hands and eyes are the means by which an artist responds to his calling, but here Chang's hands are severed, reduced to a blurry mess of strokes, while his eyes, blinded by the horrors that he has witnessed, have been scooped out of their sockets.
-
Inscriptions
-
None.
-
Dimensions with frame
-
N/A
-
Condition
-
Remounted onto new strips of canvas along the edges and stretched over a new frame. Craquelure. Evidence of paint flaking. A piece of tape along the left edge of the frame. Some pieces of tape on the reverse (check again when we flip the work over). Lizard droppings. Brown spots which may be mould or foxing.
-
Bibliography of printed matter
-
Orianna Cacchione, “Tang Chang: Abstracting the Line, Retrieving the Image,” in Tang Chang: The Painting that is Painted with Poetry is Profoundly Beautiful, (Chicago: Smart Museum of Art, the University of Chicago, 2018), 11.
-
Yin Ker, “An Essay on Non-Forms: Tang Chang (1934–1990), a Modern Painter of Literati Aspirations from Bangkok,” in Tang Chang (1934–1990): Non-Forms (Bangkok: The Tang Chang Private Museum), 25, 27, 29, 33.
-
Reframing Modernism: Painting from Southeast Asia, Europe and Beyond, eds. Sarah Lee and Sara Siew (Singapore: National Gallery Singapore, 2016), 216.
-
Sutyot phon ngan sinlapa ruam samai thai nai samai ratshakan thi kao sa kha thatsanasin [Great Contemporary Artworks in Rama IX era, Section of Fine Arts] (Bangkok: Ministry of Culture, 2019), 93.
สุดยอดผลงานศิลปะร่วมสมัยไทยในสมัยรัชกาลที่ ๙ สาขาทัศนศิลป์ (กรุงเทพฯ: กระทรวงวัฒนธรรม, 2562), 93.
-
Pandit Chanrochanakit, Khang lang phap sip si tula chak rabop patiwat khong phadetkan su kan patiwat khong prachachon [Behind the image of 14 October: From Dictatorship’s Revolution to People’s Revolution] (Bangkok: Matichon, 2023), 159.
บัณฑิต จันทร์โรจนกิจ, ข้างหลังภาพ 14 ตุลาฯ: จากระบอบปฏิวัติของเผด็จการสู่การปฏิวัติของประชาชน (กรุงเทพฯ: มติชน, 2566), 159.
-
All known reproductions.
-
The Art Gallery Silpakorn University, 27th National Exhibition of Art (Bangkok: Krung Siam Kan Pim, 1981), 21.
หอศิลป์ มหาวิทยาลัยศิลปากร, การแสดงศิลปกรรมแห่งชาติครั้งที่ ๒๗ (กรุงเทพฯ: กรุงสยามการพิมพ์, 2524), 21.
[Caption: "จ่าง แซ่ตั้ง ในปี 1973" สีน้ำมัน]
-
Thip Sae-tang, Anuson Nai Kan Chapanakit Sop Khun Po Chang Sae-tang [Funeral Book of Tang Chang], (Bangkok: Wanmai, 1990), 22.
ทิพย์ แซ่ตั้ง, อนุสรณ์ในการฌาปนกิจศพ คุณพ่อ จ่าง แซ่ตั้ง, (กรุงเทพฯ: วันใหม่, 2533), 22.
-
TANG CHANG “A MOMENT IN A LONG, PRODUCTIVE AND CREATIVE LIFE!” Selected Works from The Artist’s Collection of Living Words of Wisdom Vol. 2 (Nakhon Pathom: The Tang Chang Private Museum, 2002), 2.
จ่างแซ่ตั้ง: เวลาอันยาวนาน ภาคอักษรมีลมหายใจ 1967–1990 (บางบท) เล่ม 2 (นครปฐม: พิพิธภัณฑ์ จ่าง แซ่ตั้ง, 2545), 2.
-
Tang Chang: Abstract Paintings - Concrete Poetry. (Nakhon Pathom: The Tang Chang Private Museum, 2013), 150, 151.
จ่าง แซ่ตั้ง: จิตรกรรมนามธรรม บทกวีรูปธรรม. (นครปฐม: พิพิธภัณฑ์ จ่าง แซ่ตั้ง, 2556), 150, 151.
-
Nawapooh Sae-tang (ed.), Chang Sueksa [Chang Studies], (Nakhon Pathom: Tang Chang’s Descendants Publishing, 2020), 62, cover.
นวภู แซ่ตั้ง (บรรณาธิการ), จ่าง ศึกษา. (นครปฐม: สำนักพิมพ์ ลูก-หลาน จ่าง แซ่ตั้ง, 2563), 62, ปกหน้า
[Caption: ตัดมือกวี ควักตาจิตรกร. ปีสร้าง 2516 ขนาด 205 x 243 ซม. สีน้ำมันบนผ้าใบ]
-
Orianna Cacchione, “Tang Chang: Abstracting the Line, Retrieving the Image,” in Tang Chang: The Painting that is Painted with Poetry is Profoundly Beautiful (Chicago: Smart Museum of Art, the University of Chicago, 2018), 12.
-
Yin Ker and Marcella Lista, Tang Chang (1934-1990): Non-Forms. (Bangkok: The Tang Chang Private Museum, 2023), 50, 66a.
-
Reframing Modernism: Painting from Southeast Asia, Europe and Beyond, eds. Sarah Lee and Sara Siew (Singapore: National Gallery Singapore, 2016), 218.
-
John Clark, Asian Modernities: Chinese and Thai Art Compared, 1980 to 1999 (Sydney, N.S.W: Power Publications, 2010), 118.
-
Sutyot phon ngan sinlapa ruam samai thai nai samai ratshakan thi kao sa kha thatsanasin [Great Contemporary Artworks in Rama IX era, Section of Fine Arts] (Bangkok: Ministry of Culture, 2019), 92.
สุดยอดผลงานศิลปะร่วมสมัยไทยในสมัยรัชกาลที่ ๙ สาขาทัศนศิลป์ (กรุงเทพฯ: กระทรวงวัฒนธรรม, 2562), 92.
-
Pandit Chanrochanakit, Khang lang phap sip si tula chak rabop patiwat khong phadetkan su kan patiwat khong prachachon [Behind the Pictures of 14 October: From Dictatorship Revolution to the People’s Revolution] (Bangkok: Matichon, 2023), 158.
บัณฑิต จันทร์โรจนกิจ, ข้างหลังภาพ 14 ตุลาฯ: จากระบอบปฏิวัติของเผด็จการสู่การปฏิวัติของประชาชน (กรุงเทพฯ: มติชน, 2566), 158.
-
Exhibition history.
-
The 27th National Art Exhibition. [การแสดงศิลปกรรมแห่งชาติ ครั้งที่ 27]. Silpakorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. March 9−31, 1981.
-
“TANG CHANG THE ORIGINAL, THE ORIGINAL TANG CHANG!” Artist’s Collection of 400 Selected Self-Portraits (1954–1987) [“จ่าง แซ่ตั้ง ก็คือ จ่าง แซ่ตั้ง” ภาพใบหน้าตัวเอง 400 ชิ้น]. The Mercury Art Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand. March 21–April 9, 2000.
-
Tang Chang: The Painting that is Painted with Poetry is Profoundly Beautiful. Smart Museum of Art, the University of Chicago, Chicago, USA. May 8–August 5, 2018.
-
Tang Chang (1934–1990): Non-Forms. Centre Pompidou, Paris, France. October 20, 2023–April 8, 2024.
-
Reframing Modernism: Painting from Southeast Asia, Europe and Beyond. National Gallery Singapore, Singapore. March 31–July 17, 2016.
-
Annotations for selected works.
-
Just a painter and a humble poet who is fully committed to paint and to write meaningfully in tribute to the motherland and his compatriots rising in anger against the military dictatorship on 14 October 1973.
A painter and a poet witnessing Thais slaughtering Thais, heeding the call of a clear conscience, responding with a self-portrait of a painter and a poet who has scooped out his own eyes, cut off his own hands, against the backdrop of turmoil caused by decades of oppression.
A painter and a poet who no longer needs the eyes to witness such a massacre in the land of his birth, who no longer needs hands to paint and to write, a farewell to all creative endeavours, the last of the 1973 series!
Tang Chang, c. 1979–1980. Unidentified audio recording in Thai. Quoted in Ker, Non-Forms: Tang Chang (1934–1990), 51.
-
According to neo-traditional painter Phaptawan Suwannakudt, who had known Chang Sae-tang since childhood and had been sent by her father Tan Kudt (Paiboon Suwannakudt) to learn poetry with him around 1981 to 1982, Chang Sae-tang said this painting represented his own helplessness as a father when he learned that one of his sons had been caught up in the events of 14 October 1973 and had gone missing. He could not see what was happening so he felt blind, and he was so helpless he felt his hands had been cut off. (Clark, Asian Modernities, 152.)
