Suchao Sisganes, Vincent van Gogh of Thailand

Art and drama stories are born clinging together. The more stylish the art is, the more intriguing the stories will be. These two components can make the artwork remarkable. One of the notable examples is the life and work of ‘Vincent van Gogh’, the renowned Dutch artist who always delivered millions of stroked lumps of paint on canvas. That painting looked fine, just fine after peeking across it. But when learning about his desperate life, I felt so touched. Van Gogh dedicated his whole life to art, his only beloved career, wherever he was. Nothing could deprive him of painting. However, he could not sell one of them in his lifetime. Living on a meager became his daily life basis, but he was lucky enough to have a generous brother who kindly supported him until the last day of his life. Sometimes he felt so stressed out that he had his ear cut and posted it to his beloved. Moreover, to some degree, his mental pain developed even greater causing him to loiter somewhere with a pistol which he used to end his life in the field. His life story makes his painting even more enthralling. This sounds similar to the life of one artist in Thailand, Suchao Sisganes. Both Van Gogh’s and Suchao’s life were cast in the same mold in terms of miserable careers. Suchao reflected his devastating lifetime in the form of thick oil paintings; subsequently, he was called ‘Van Gogh of Thailand’.

Born on November 15th, 1926, to a Chinese immigrant couple, Mr. Yim Thinguang and Mrs. Yee Sea Yim, who crossed over the vast ocean with their only hope of working in Thailand. Their baby boy, Sewjieng Sae Yim, was the family’s second child. A small family with a girl and a boy lived in Bangkholaem District, Bangkok. However, the family bond did not last long. Their parents had to return to their hometown, mainland China, leaving the two siblings to live on their own. Nothing was heard; their fates were on thin air. The elder sister, 20, was obligated to raise her younger brother alone, who was about ten years old. Bringing up a young boy seemed to be a big burden for her, but she wholeheartedly took it as her responsibility resulting in the boy finishing high school level. During high school, he changed his name from Chinese to Thai name, Suchao Yimtrakul.

Both lived in the poverty. Regardless of how hard the sister worked, she could not earn enough to buy proper food. Sometimes, they almost starved to death. When Suchao finished high school, the basic education level at that time, he turned himself to the workforce, but he was not patient enough. Consequently, he changed his jobs almost 20 times. Sometimes, he worked only one day and never returned. He spent his day time working for a living, but his night was full of his passion. He practiced his painting skills after sunset; he plunged himself into the world of art as if he unchained his agony from the harshness of the real world. Although his leisure was too short, it was a scant escape from the hardship of his fate. Probably, his enthusiasm for art inspired him to change his family name again to ‘Sisganes’, Ganesha’s student. Ganesha is a Hindu deity known as the lord of fortune, prosperity, success, art, and knowledge, and Sis means student in the Thai language.  According to his new family name, he devoted himself to being a student under Ganesha’s protection officially.

His only dream after finishing school was to attend an art academy, but his insufficient budget and time prevented him from achieving his dream. He, hence, had to practice art himself from zero. After a while, the lord of fortune took his side. He brought Suchao to see Mr. Chalerm Nakiraks, an instructor at Pohchang Art Academy, the most famous art academy in Thailand. Mr. Chalerm was praised as one of the impeccable artists of the country. Under Chaleam’s supervision outside the class, Suchao learned about the watercolor technique, and, fortunately, he met Mr. Tawee Nandhakwang, another front-rolled artist, who taught him an oil painting technique. The two greatest artists enabled Suchao to immerse himself in his fondness for art. He spent all night long on art practicing for half a year. It was worth trying. He submitted an oil painting of an ebony burnt stump wood to the 4th Art National Contest in 1953. It was painted in thick layers of oil paint outlined with innumerable geometric forms like Tawee Nandhakwang’s style, but it left the feeling of misery. To his surprise, he was awarded a silver medal prize leading to his delight and proving that his life was on the right track.

In the same year, it’s time for Suchao to pursue his dream. He attended Silpa Suksa School, a school of art, followed by a faculty of painting and sculpture at Silpakorn University, the renowned art university in Thailand. It was his luck to learn with Prof. Silpa Bhirasri when he was alive. The professor called him ‘Nai Jek’, Mr. Chinese Man, because Suchao was the eldest student in his class. Suchao had skipped his education for ten years owing to financial reasons. He was the most penniless student and did not have enough for his living. He had to do a long march from his place in the Bangkholaem area to the university as he didn’t have enough cash to pay for the transportation fee. The distance was so far that sometimes he had to stay with his friend who lived near the university. He had to live with a meager diet which occasionally he could make an effort to buy. He was the most toxic diet-tolerant man as he had never felt sick when he ate rotten food.

After finishing a certificate level in 1959, he applied to be an art teacher at Chulalongkorn University Demonstrated School. He worked there for four years before starting his life as a freelance artist. He rent a cheap small room that he could use as his art studio. He got very little paid for his paintings since he didn’t produce in-trend pictures to serve the market demands, such as flowers, ladies, scenic views, or any pleasing paintings. Instead, he depicted his desperate life through his paintings, such as fatigued look siblings waiting for mercies from the passerby, a blank rice plate with fish’s bones, a dreadful tree without leaves, or his ideal home that was beyond his reach. With a quick scan, Suchao’s works looked very simple as he engaged geometric forms: triangles, squares, or rectangles, in his paintings. This discouraged people to view them as works from the mature artist. As a result, he couldn’t make any sales from his work during the first period of his freelance career. Sometimes, he had to give his paintings to others for free. Being afraid that those painting would scare the family members, the receivers often returned his paintings because of their creepy look. Nonetheless, Suchao was still being sincere in his feeling. He was determined to contribute his work based on his guts in a unique style.

Suchao spent his modest life lonely in a worn-out room. He would not dare to build up a small family as he was not capable to earn enough for them. Everyone viewed him as polite and humble with a happy life, but no one knew his miserable story. He thought that everyone had their fate, so there was no reason to confide his grievances to another. Preferably, Suchao expressed his feeling and sadness in his notebook and painting frame. He wrote about his life in an unpretentious way.

‘I can’t dare to live my life like the others owing to my little education; just an art certificate.

My power is so truncated.

To venture into my motherland which may be the land that buries my fate.

Just to comfort me with what I face.

Dwelling in a small room may experience the outside place.’

Sadly, several people started to understand him and value his paintings when Suchao had little time left in his life. Staying in his run-down room could deteriorate his health. In his 60s, he found out that he had high blood pressure and visited the hospital many times. During his last visit, his friends escorted him to the hospital before being paralyzed the whole body. It was his luck to have good friends who supported his hospital expense and arranged an art exhibition for him to raise funds for his living at Silpa Brirasri’s Hall in late 1985. One of the dramatic reminiscences in Thailand’s contemporary art community was his friends, nurses, and collectors moved his stretcher where he lay motionlessly around, so he could slowly see his artworks himself. Although he stayed immobilized, he could express his feeling through his eyes showing the languishing lifetime he had passed through along with an expression of happiness, the happiness from his long-lasting friendship he should deserve, well deserve. Not long after, he passed away on 23 March 1986.

After seeing Suchao’s painting for the first time in an art book, frankly speaking, I felt that his art looked simple and even the children could do it. Until I saw it with my bare eyes. I had to change my mind as the innumerable glittering shades of paint shone under copious simple geometric shapes that formed the big picture. Suchao skillfully and harmoniously blended them. Suchao could be considered to be the first expressionist artist in Thailand. He didn’t focus on the realistic element but chose to express the mood and message of the picture through the tones and symbols. The more I learned about his life, the more I felt overwhelmed. He painted his true life from his own grief-stricken experience without deception. Therefore, I really yearned for his painting to be in my collection.

While I was searching for his painting, I felt that the world was unjustified to him. He never lived luxuriously as his paintings were sold at a dirt cheap price, but after his death, the price of his paintings skyrocketed from hundreds or thousands to hundred thousands or millions of THB like the other professionals. Soon after, it was undeniable to found out that criminal imitation of his paintings was taken place. It was not fair for him at all.

You see, Suchao’s life and paintings were so dramatic that he can beat Vincent van Gogh’s devastating life easily. Hence, Should I name Vincent van Gogh ‘Suchao from the Windmill Land’?