Attasit Pokpong: Contrasts Attract

An entourage of veiled women stare down from the walls inside Attasit Pokpong’s Pathum Thani studio. Their lips are luminous and full, seemingly separate from their pale faces. Their soft black eyes cast spells, compelling those who stand before them to come in for a closer look or perhaps caress their cheeks.

“It’s amusing to imagine what she’s thinking of, isn’t it?” asks Attasit from a distance, the voice materialising before the person, as if emerging from the mist that shrouds the women in his portraits. The painter is down-to-earth and instantly likeable. He is dressed simply, wearing sandals, worn-out denim jeans and a humble smile. “People say different things, but it really depends on you. She might be angry or trying to seduce you. Your call.”

Attasit is one of Thailand’s most highly regarded and recognisable contemporary artists. He has exhibited in prestigious galleries around the world, and his eye-catching portraits have sold for millions of Baht apiece.

His muse is instantly identifiable – a woman, sometimes more than one – and his pop art-inspired style has gained him a faithful following. While his paintings may appear simple in form, and in fact each takes only a day or two to perfect (plus two weeks to properly dry), the road to discovery for this renowned artist has not been an easy one.

After graduating from the Rajamonkol Art Institute in Thailand, Attasit began to paint, mainly with watercolour, depicting landscapes and rural scenes. “I thought watercolour was the most superb technique in the world. It was quick and precise, but it was very hard to master. I was a fool. I became too confident, believing that I’d become someone with it.” Attasit’s work did not receive the attention he expected, and soon he found himself doing mural art for temples and selling paintings on pavements for pocket change. He didn’t just have to think about honing his style – paying for the materials he needed to continue to paint proved to be challenging enough. 

On a trip to China, however, Attasit would encounter his first break, the light that would shine the way on his path to self-discovery, when he came across the work of world-renowned Chinese surrealist painter Zhang Xiaogang. “I hold him in the highest esteem. The way he paints enlightens me,” Attasit says, as he describes his first impression of Zhang’s monochromatic Bloodline series (depictions of Chinese people, usually with large eyes and dark pupils, posing in a stiff manner deliberately reminiscent of family portraits from the Mao era).

“I looked at his work and wondered why I liked it so much. The faces were not pretty, but they were so emotionally overwhelming – the people seemed imbued with life. I thought it was extraordinary how a painting can captivate you like that.”

When Attasit returned to Thailand, he pored over books that profiled Zhang’s masterpieces. “I wanted to be successful like him, but I couldn’t just adapt his work to suit my needs. I had to find myself first, and so I tried my hand at portraits.” He rummaged through old albums in search of a muse and stumbled upon a picture of his wife when she was in secondary school.

“She had this quaint face with big eyes and full lips,” he says, pointing at a portrait of a woman wearing bright cherry lipstick that hangs on the wall in his studio. “People often assume that I always paint feminine Asian faces. I don’t. I paint what I deem to be my ideal of Asian beauty – which happens be my wife’s countenance,” he adds, flashing a grin.

The switch from landscape to portrait was dramatic, as it coincided with a switch in medium as well. Attasit had decided to dabble with oils, and soon he picked up the sfumato technique (sfumato is often associated with the works of Leonardo da Vinci, such as the Mona Lisa and John the Baptist). The faces in his portraits achieved a mystical appearance, as colours and tones gradually shaded into one another, seeming to evaporate like smoke, leaving no harsh outlines.

Still, Attasit admits that the first painting of his wife was not yet fully developed. “I needed something to pull in viewers, to make them linger. A trademark, something bold.” For that, he turned to pop art and bright colours. While Zhang emphasised the eyes, he focused on the lips. “My concept is quite simple really: classic portrait plus pop art equals Attasit,” he quips.

In 2009, the painter finally perfected his portraits. Soon after, a curator from Shanghai discovered him, and from there he launched onto the global stage. People from all over the world ventured to Thailand in search of “the red lips”, the moniker his paintings used to be dubbed. “It was then that I sort of thought, ‘Perhaps I have it all.’ You know – art, fame, money.”

But that trinity wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. While still riding the wave of his initial success, Attasit churned out a large number of works, saying that at one point he felt like a machine. He began to ponder where he stood in the eyes of his fans and the art world alike. That willingness – or, rather, propensity – to self-assess has driven the artist’s on-going evolution, and it has led to remarkable achievements as he has fine-tuned his style.

Attasit has a penchant for stark contrasts between the darker or lighter colours of his backgrounds and the muted, sometimes uncommon colours of his subjects’ faces – for example, a bluish brown face juxtaposed by lustrous lips and hair. He plays with space and keeps details concentrated and minimal. Fashion in his paintings comes and goes, but the model stays.

“I don’t really think of my wife as my muse or model anymore. I guess it’s like muscle memory; drawing that face has become automatic. I’ve got it and I can replicate it endlessly, but the essence lies in the different ways I choose to present the beauty of that face to keep up with the times,” he says. 

At present Attasit produces 20 to 25 paintings per year per series. Sometimes it’s the hair colour, and sometimes it’s the strokes of light and shadow that mark the series. He says it can take years to find the right inspiration for a series and months to carefully plan it. “Travel is still my main source of inspiration. With travel comes many happy incidents, and those give me fresh ideas,” says Attasit, as he starts to open up about his next collection. He looks forward to an upcoming six-month sojourn to New York, where he will hold his next show.

As is becoming evident, Attasit can be rather dramatic when it comes to change, and when he hints that maybe it’s time to part with the signature face, it feels as if the next act in his life’s stage play is about to begin. “In New York, I want to create something that carries the air of the city. I’m thinking [the people of] Africa. Their identity is very inspiring – the glowing skin, the colourful clothes, the headdresses. I just love the contrast.”

At 40, though already successful, with attention lavished on him from across the globe, Attasit is far from being complacent. He speaks in earnest when he says, “There is always room to become better, and I’d say I’ve just reached 20 percent of what I think I could achieve in my life. The journey on this happy – though at times demanding – road I’m travelling has just begun.”