Interiors 19


orange, turquoise and gold on a black or dark blue background, constitutes one of the finest private collections in existence.


Along with porcelain and ceramics, innumerable paintings on cotton from the Vessantara Jataka decorate the walls. Tis penultimate story of the Jataka tales, which originated in Sanskrit from India, relating the 550 previous lives of the Buddha, Prince Siddharta Gautama, is illustrated in one that shows Prince Vessantara and his children in a delicate chariot, drawn by a mythical unicorn, riding into exile. Some paintings are on vertical cloth banners (phrabot in Tai). Another shows the story of Jujak the hermit and his wife, to whom the Prince gave his children.


Other


paintings on wood, from the 20th- century Bangkok School, show the Buddha and bodhisattvas. Tompson’s collection of paintings are displayed throughout the museum and represent several eras of Tai paintings and murals. His collection includes literary


texts, in cabinets, relating the Hindu epic the Ramayana, Ramakien in Tai, its innumerable episodes captured with delicate grace by Tai artists, and other legends and tales, many dating from the 18th century. Te figures, exquisitely painted, radiate the same calm and dignity as Buddha images. As with all Tai art, which is sacred, none of these is signed, being the expression by artisans of their religious and philosophical beliefs, made as offerings to temples, rather than as any conscious creation of a ‘work of art’. Textiles are everywhere and Tompson’s silks cover every bed, chair, stool and sofa. Tese lustrous fabrics were what drew the visitors of the time who ranged from celebrities to royalty. Tey included Somerset Maugham, Gore Vidal, Cecil Beaton, Truman Capote, Senator Robert Kennedy, Edward and Ethel Kennedy, Edward Luce, founder of Time, actress Anne Baxter, Barbara Hutton, the Woolworths heiress, Doris Duke, the ‘richest girl in the world’, whose


collection of Asian artefacts is in the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, and the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, and Queen Sirikit herself who bought his silks for her clothes designed by couturier Pierre Balmain. But Tompson also invited students and teachers from the University of Fine Arts to view his collection, graciously providing refreshments. Te living room where his dinner parties had become legendary, often accompanied by classical dancers, a Tai orchestra, and an assortment of animals such as Cocky his cockatoo, bantams and domestic pets, was like a theatrical stage as the doors opened completely on to the garden filled with the perfume of tropical blooms such as jasmin, frangipani, flame of the forest and numerous palm trees, arranged by Tompson. By 1967, 50 years ago, Tompson


had lived eight years in his house. At the pinnacle of his success, with silk now established as the country’s most celebrated product and living art,


recipient of the highest awards in recognition of his work from the government, he decided to spend Easter with friends, the Lings, in their house, Moonlight Cottage, in the Cameron Highlands of Malaysia. Accompanied by Connie Mangksau, a fellow aesthete, art collector and dealer, they left on 23 March and spent Good Friday and Easter Saturday together. On Sunday 26 March at about 3pm, Tompson, aged 61 years old, went out for a walk. But he never returned. Searches of every description over the following weeks and months yielded nothing. Conspiracy theories regarding his work for the CIA flourished, with allusions to kidnap and abduction. Rumours circulated of Tai rivals jealous of a foreigner’s success with a great private collection of Tai art. His biographer Joshua Kurlantzick, in Te Ideal Man, Te Tragedy of Jim Tompson and the American Way of War, believes he attracted hostility during a troubled time of war in Southeast


Asia. Te mystery attracted worldwide attention. But nothing has ever been proved. After seven years he was declared dead. In 1976, permission was obtained


from the Tai government by the court-appointed administrators for Tompson’s property for it to become a foundation bearing his name. Te property was vested in the foundation and the house and collection were officially registered as a national museum. His legacy is thus accessible to all


art lovers and tourists who have only to turn down an alley off a busy main road in Bangkok to find a corner of Old Siam and enter a magical world.


Jim Tompson Museum: Rama I Road, Khwaeng Wang Mai, Khet Pathum Wan, Krung Tep Maha Nakhon 10330, jimthompsonhouse.com. Jim Tompson Silk Shop: 9 Tanon Surawong, Khwaeng Suriya Wong, Khet Bang Rak, Bangkok


BOOK NOW 19 Oct –18 Feb www.ashmolean.org


"Unmissable… a fascinating journey through the art of religions from India to Ireland" MARY BEARD


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Supported by: The Ruddock Foundation for the Arts The Patrons of the Ashmolean


OCTOBER 2017 ASIAN ART


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