In 1958, in a letter posted in Thailand to his sister Eleanor, Jim Thompson observed, “The house should be a gem when it’s finished.”
Jim Thompson’s study.
Now a fixture on the itineraries of many visitors to Bangkok, the Jim Thompson House complex contains hundreds of works of art displayed in six interconnected Thai-style dwellings, four of which were disassembled and brought from Ayutthaya; the other two from the neighbourhood just across Saen Saep Canal from the site bought by the American expat at the end of a narrow soi off Rama I Road. Thompson didn’t merely build a home, he constructed a cultural institution.
Seven artists, representing several different nationalities, have studied the diverse collection of paintings, sculpture, tapestries, ceramics and other beautiful objects displayed in Thompson’s residence. The result is “Transmission”, an exhibition, curated by David Teh with assistance from Mary Pansanga, of contemporary works created in response to Thompson’s eclectic taste in Asian art. The works, on display until the end of August, were conceived out of history and a proud tradition and are intended to translate the meaning of cultural roots as understood by today’s artists.
“The physical house is important in understanding the collection,” researcher Bruno Lemercier noted during a lecture, organised in conjunction with “Transmission”, which traced Thompson’s process as both an art collector and an architect. The house, completed in 1959, was constructed partly as a space in which the American entrepreneur could display his acquisitions of artwork. He would sometimes open the residence for educational visits and created booklets to explain his collection.
“The collection isn’t organised and displayed as in a museum,” Lemercier observed. “A visual experience is created through the way the art fits into the house.”
Works created by Albert Yonathan Setyawan for “Transmission”: Mystic Flowers (right) and Lotus House.
Since his baffling disappearance in 1967, Thompson’s house and art collection has been preserved almost exactly as its owner left them. “When the Foundation to preserve the home took over [its running], they didn’t move a thing. There was this idea that, if Jim were to reappear, he could just move back in,” explained Gridthiya Gaweewong, artistic director of the Jim Thompson Art Centre.
The house itself is a fusion of Eastern and Western aesthetics and culture. The main entrance leads to a grand stairway, just like it would in the mansions of wealthy Westerners. “The artworks are not just decoration for the house,” Lemercier said. “By the 1960s, Jim had collected some very, very nice pieces of art.” The collection consists of about 150 paintings (of both religious and non-religious subjects), as well as sculptures and ceramics. The paintings were mostly executed on cotton so their condition has deteriorated over the years, largely due to humidity. Restoration has been kept to a minimum; in some pieces, it was just a redrawing of the outlines of faded areas.
Thompson took remarkable care of every detail, every stick of furniture, every piece of art, I was told by one of the staffers whose job it is to take visitors on guided tours of the house. He transformed the six traditional houses he bought, connecting them with walkways and drainage systems to create a unique complex. The table in his formal dining room actually comprises two smaller card tables originally designed for playing mah-jong. Ornately carved yom panels, which typically faced outwards, embellishing the exterior of a window and displaying the house-owner’s wealth, have been turned inward, because Thompson enjoyed the handiwork.
In the living room, the ceiling was raised to improve the flow of air and allow for the hanging of a chandelier (as well as to hide all the electric wires). Thompson had lamps created from traditional drums and converted window openings into display boxes for wooden sculptures of Burmese goddesses. He also designed furniture to accommodate his Western guests, most of whom would not have been familiar with the bare style of Thai homes.
The landing on this floor is a long gallery some 15 metres long, with a statue of the Buddha framed by the arched door.
“Jim travelled upcountry on the weekends. He went to Burma frequently in the 1950s and he knew lots of art dealers in Nakhon Kasem [a neighbourhood in Bangkok’s Chinatown] and art collectors,” said Lemercier of Thompson’s method of acquiring new objects for his growing collection.
Most of the religious sculptures he bought are in the Khmer-Lop Buri style, but the collection spans a great many years, from a Mon-Dvaravati statue of a standing Buddha dating from the 7th or 8th century, and others in the Ko-Ker (10th century) and U-Thong styles (late 13th century), to items created during the Sukhothai and Ayutthaya periods. Some of these pieces were once loaned to the Grand Palais in Paris for an exhibition.
On the other end of the hallway, a heavy decorative door rescued from a pawnshop in Yaowarat leads the way into Thompson’s bedroom. One wall of his tiny study was created from wooden boards that once graced a cargo ship, a Chinese junk. “There’s a hidden compartment in the ceiling where Jim’s will was discovered seven years after his disappearance,” Gridthiya explained. “He lived alone in the house except for a gardener and a Chinese cook.”
Antique ceramics make up about half the items in Thompson’s collection. “My house is bursting with Mings!”, Thompson wrote his sister in 1962. The following year he started collecting fine examples of Thai Benjarong. He amassed more than 200 pieces in all, from small cups to large jars bearing mythological designs and graphic patterns, from Lai-Namthong to blue-and-white ceramics from Jingdezhen and Annam.
This immense collection, spanning many centuries and great geographical expanses and various ruling dynasties, is a microcosm of our heritage, as seen through Thompson’s eyes.
Displayed in a modern annexe built on the other side of the compound from Thompson’s original residence, “Transmission” features contemporary works in several media by a mixture of Thai and foreign artists who said they were both inspired and confronted by the past.
Thakol Khao Sa-ad explores archaic methods of measurement, reproducing the varying lengths of his friends’ forearms to revisit an ancient unit of measurement called the cubit. Albert Yonathan Setyawan has created ceramic pieces bearing repetitions of geometric forms which are contemporary but at the same time timeless. These and other works in the exhibition attempt to continue the dialogue Thompson started when he began accumulating artefacts from the cultural heritage of this region in a house, which is itself a work of art.
'Transmission' opens at the Jim Thompson House Art Centre today and runs until August 30. Jim Thompson House, 6 Soi Kasemsan 2, Rama 1 Road. Call 02-216-7368.
Limestone torso of the Buddha, Dvaravati period (7th or 8th century), in the garden of Jim Thompson’s house.
View from the hallway of the high-ceilinged salon in Jim Thompson’s house; the door leading to the patio and canal-side garden is on the left.
