Art-Thai-Time at BACC Examines Silpa Bhirasri's Legacy and Thailand's First Public Art Gallery

The exhibition 'Art-Thai-Time' at Bangkok Art & Culture Centre (BACC) explores Italian sculptor Silpa Bhirasri's influence on Thai modern art and the ongoing struggle to establish Thailand's first public art gallery. Bhirasri, who arrived in Siam in 1923 and founded Silpakorn University in 1943, lamented in 1961 that Thailand had no public gallery of modern art. The show traces how patrons like Princess Chumbhot and banker Puey Ungphakorn opened the Bhirasri Institute of Modern Art (BIMA) in 1974, designed by architect M.L. Tridhosyuth Devakul. BIMA's programming ranged from abstract paintings by Viboon Purissutiron and Parinya Tantisuk to agitprop works by the Artists' Front of Thailand. A mini-exhibition restages works by the folk-art collective Wethi-Samai, including Vasan Sitthiket's 'Making Love in the Crowd' (1985). However, the show suggests BIMA remained largely conservative, closing without outcry after CEO Misiem Yipintsoi's death in 1988. The BACC, modeled on BIMA's interdisciplinary approach, now hosts this archival show through August 20.