The extensive work of Thailand's elusive artist-princess, HSH Princess Marsi Sukhumbhand Paribatra, will be shown in a rare exhibition to be held from Jan 18 to Feb 26 at the Queen's Gallery.
Flore (year unknown)
Organised by the Princess Marsi Paribatra Foundation, the exhibition titled "L'art de Marsi" will highlight an extensive collection of the princess' work as well as six paintings from the private collection of Her Majesty the Queen graciously on loan from Bang Pa-in Palace in Ayutthaya and Vimarnmek Palace in Bangkok. The royally-commissioned pieces include two royal portraits of HM the Queen, and a series of four paintings under the theme "Seasons".
The work of Princess Marsi is unique in its figurative style, full of intricate details, imaginary half-man half-animal creatures that are like fairytales yet offer a deep philosophical reflection on life and death.
According to leading artist Panya Vijinthanasarn, painting real life is already a challenge to most artists, but to give life to imagination in what is known as the surrealiste-fantastique style is another realm of art. Based in her adopted home at Annot in the south of France, Princess Marsi _ once referred to as an "intellectual vagabond" _ paints according to the old school. She draws the picture first on paper, which is then copied onto a canvas _ more often than not very large _ which she stretches herself according to the size required. She then spends copious amounts of time priming the base of the canvas in preparation for the actual oil imagery.
And the princess paints under natural light only, working on several canvasses at a time in turn.
Perrofleur 2 (1986)
Princess Marsi is the only child of HRH Prince Chumbhotbongse Paribatra, Prince of Nagor Svarga (son of HRH Prince Paribatra Sukhumbhand, and grandson of King Chulalongkorn), and MR Pantip Paribatra, whose lasting legacy today is the beautiful Suan Pakkad Palace and museum.
Princess Marsi has spent most of her 82 years overseas. At the age of one, she accompanied her parents into self-exile in Java after the political revolution of 1932, later going to school England. She spent some time in Penang and Thailand where she attended Mater Dei School, before leaving for Switzerland to complete her schooling. She obtained a diploma in arts and letters from the University of Cambridge, then returned to teach French and the history of Western art for a while at Chulalongkorn University. She then furthered her studies in French literature at the Sorbonne, where she received a doctorate degree.
She taught Far Eastern culture at the University of Madrid for two years, during which time she also mastered the Spanish language. It was during this time that she became serious about her passion for painting, and refined her skills which were entirely self-taught.
It is no surprise that her works are filled with elements of literature, art history and mythology, as well as her beloved pets _ dogs, cats, birds _ that share her living space, as well as the mysterious beauty of the diminutive yet strong female form that is undoubtedly an embodiment of the artist herself.
In the book Marsi, A Siamese Princess: Love And Magic In Painting, Georges Bloess writes: "...all her paintings emit a disturbing energy, which might even be called feminine. Like her intellectual sisters
[Frida Kahlo, Georgia O'Keefe, Leonor Fini], indeed, she fascinates by her visionary strength, her propositions where evidence confronts enigma; both rich in anticipated foreboding and prophesy, yet in close contact with the most primitive and humble creatures, she contrives an enclosing and luxuriant universe in which appear, in apparently inexhaustible profusion, forms which are always new, rendered in exceptionally dense colours.
"The dual culture, both Eastern and Western, of Princess Marsi appears in her canvasses in the form of a permanent and passionate dialogue."
Visite de la Sphynge (1984)
