June 11, 2023

With his works of Realism, Jaiko, or Weeraya Yamansabeedeen, is a new generation artist to keep an eye on. He brought up the issue of war utilizing Mickey Mouse cartoon characters as the major symbol to represent the superpowers. Jaiko’s images are sought after by collectors and reserved the minute they are sketched. Each image is realistically detailed and takes 3-4 months to complete. The price runs into hundreds of thousands per image.

Let’s imagine you were the son of the greatest artist, what would you do with the priceless property after your relative’s sudden death? These could include artworks, real estate, cash, and millions of responsibilities for you to manage, but how would you manage your asset properly?

Dating back to my youth, I often accompanied my parents to temples (with waddling steps and half-sleeping moods) a conventional Thai practice. At the time, going to the temple was not enjoyable. Every temple had something in common, such as the ordination halls, monks, monks’ cubicles, and dogs. I started going to the temple purposefully when I grew up. It’s not that I was excited about Dhamma, meditating, preaching, or praying. Frankly speaking, I like to wander around the temple because I like to explore the architectural styles, particularly the wall paintings. According to my love for contemporary art, one of my favourite paintings is of the legendary master Krua.

One day, an anonymous letter reached one of my dear relatives at his office without any advance notice. The content of the letter described that the writer knew that my relative is fond of artworks and an enthusiastic collector. The writer would like to sell his father’s collectibles which are painted by well-known artists: Fua Haripitak, Thawee Nandakwang, and Suchao Sitkanes. These artists have been highly regarded as the finest ones in the Thai art sphere and their works are the most-wanted among the collectors like Benjapakee Set, the most popular Buddhist amulet set among Thai people. Therefore, my relative passed this information and asked my help to accompany him to the place whether those paintings are worth interesting enough or not.

Many years ago, I obtained a painting of a lady wearing Sabai, the traditional Thai style breast-cloth, playing a stringed instrument in a sitting position. The owner claimed that this picture was painted by Chakrabhand Posayakrit while he was studying in a secondary school. At that time, it’s quite unbelievable that a student could portray a breathtaking picture like this. Therefore, I needed some confirmation from the actual artist whether this picture was genuine or not. Without any reluctance, I made an appointment with my senior to ‘The Chakrabhand Posayakrit Foundation’ near Big C Hypermarket Ekamai Branch where we parked our car.

It’s quite clear in my mind that it happened at the beginning of 2013 while I was glancing around my bedroom after waking up in the morning. I found out that the wall beside the TV set was blank.  ‘I should have something on the wall,’ thought to myself. In the evening on that day, I went to see my senior and told her about my irritating feeling, so she suggested that I should make a visit to her boyfriend. He was an art collector. Perhaps, there might be something that could curb my irritation or some good advice. A few days later, I dropped by at his place. With his mercy, he invited me through several rooms where exquisite art pieces from Thai artists had been mounted on the walls including sculptures standing in the room. Some were well-known among collectors. But to me, they just looked fine as I didn’t have any background of art nor art appreciation at all. I hadn’t heard of most of the artists except Thawan Datchanee and Chalermchai Kositpipat who were frequently on screen or TV programs.