"Optimism will only be ridiculous
when we find it is not that straightforward,
not a flat dimension, or not an explicit antonymic pair like black and white. We all live in a grey world where it is hard to determine which angle we should look at things from." —Natee UtaritNatee Utarit, one of the most gifted contemporary artists in Southeast Asia, is the master of the modern-day vanitas. An outlier in Thailand’s conservative artistic scene, where artists largely restrict their creative vocabulary to Thai-centric religious and sociological subjects, Utarit adopts the pictorial language of Western still life painting to ‘accurately depict the murky, complex atmosphere that surrounds the events of the present.’ i
The Thai artist’s love of metaphors and hidden symbols manifests itself in Innocence is Overrated (lot 231) and Dead Duck Principle (2015), both of which appropriate Western-style storytelling traditions popular in classical 17th- and 18th-century Baroque and Romantic paintings to unravel some of the complex history and culture behind contemporary Thai society. These tableaux of inanimate animals, painted in warm, rich hues which jar with the disquieting imagery, use irony to urge the viewer to confront uncomfortable truths in modern society. Both works belong to Utarit’s Optimism Is Ridiculous series, which he began in 2012 and completed in 2017.
Johann-Friedrich Grooth, Still Life: Dead Duck, 1746, collection of The State Hermitage Museum, Russia Heir to Eastern and Western painting traditions, but unafraid to radically reinvent the pictorial language of today, Utarit has been honoured with recent solo exhibitions at the National Gallery of Indonesia and Singapore Art Museum, as well as inclusion in acclaimed public collections such as the Bangkok University, Bangkok, Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore, as well as private collections in Europe and Asia.
i Natee Utarit, quoted in Richard Koh Fine Art, Natee Utarit: Illustration of the Crisis, Kuala Lumpur, 2013, p. 9.Provenance
Megumi Ogita Gallery, Tokyo
SBI Art Auction Co., Tokyo, 22 April 2017, lot 209
Acquired at the above sale by the present ownerExhibited
Tokyo, Megumi Ogita Gallery, Natee Utarit: Optimism is Ridiculous, 10 May - 4 June 2016
Literature
Demetrio Paparoni, Natee Utarit: Optimism is Ridiculous, Milan, 2017, p. 228 (illustrated)
232
Dead Duck Principle
2015
signed, titled and dated 'Natee Utarit. 15 optimism is Ridiculous, "Dead duck Principle"' on the reverse
oil on canvas
39.5 x 49.7 cm. (15 1/2 x 19 5/8 in.)
Painted in 2015.
Estimate
HK$80,000 - 120,000
€10,200-15,300
$10,300-15,400
Sold for HK$119,700
Danielle So
Associate Specialist, Head of Day Sale
20th Century & Contemporary Art & Design Day Sale in Association with Poly Auction
Hong Kong Auction 4 December 2020
132
This lot is no longer available.
137
This lot is no longer available.
174
This lot is no longer available.
230
This lot is no longer available.
