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THE PAINTINGS OF SVAY KEN, CAMBODIAN FOLK ARTIST
Svay Ken, born in 1933 and educated in a Buddhist pagoda in his native Takeo province, is Cambodia’s foremost contemporary folk artist. Combining oil on canvas with a highly personal style, he documents scenes from everyday life as well as past, often haunting, experiences. Although painting was a tradition in his family, he is self-taught, having spontaneously begun to paint in 1993, the year Cambodia emerged from more than two decades of social turmoil – and the year he returned to his job as a waiter at the Hotel Le Royal, where he first began to work in 1955. His subject matter, always featuring people, includes individual and group portraits in local settings as well as scenes from the 1970s recalling the dislocations of the civil war and life during the murderous Khmer Rouge period.
“I paint in order to preserve the traditions of former generations, in particular those of my grandfather. My grandfather, Hol Touch, had four sons who were trained as traditional painters but later painted in a ‘modern’ realistic style as well. In 1993, after these relatives had all died, there were no grandchildren who knew how to make art and could continue their work. Although I was already sixty years old at the time, still I had the idea that I wanted to make paintings. I had always sketched things for fun and I had watched the activities of my painter relatives. I liked to listen to them when they told stories about famous painters that came, for example, from Japan, France America. So I began to make real paintings in 1993.”
Commenting on his focus on people and inspiration to paint, he stated “The reason why most of my painting depicts farmers is because eighty percent of the Khmer people depend on farming combined with seasonal forms of craft making and small business in order to survive. My paintings depict national traditions and habits that are in decline. I don’t want people to forget how life was. My paintings are like a camera of my life of sixty years. I make paintings so that future generations can ponder the question, ‘How was life then and how is life now?’”
Notes and critical comments:
- Edward B. Fiske has written that Ken’s (early) paintings “are utterly naïve and deficient in technical qualities such as perspective and proportion. A large banquet scene has a group of chefs who are much bigger than any of the diners, no doubt a reflection of the artist’s perceptions as a longtime waiter.”(1) (This painting is available in the gallery)
- Art critic Bradbury Edwards wrote in 1998 that Svay Ken “is an intriguing combination of influences: naïve yet sophisticated; uneducated yet intelligent; modest yet confident. Starting to make art late in life may sometimes be an advantage. Svay is a man at one with his work, and to know his paintings is to be close to the man.”(2)
- New York Times correspondent Seth Mydans described Svay Ken as “a poet of the mundane, of the small moments that make up a life, no matter how big the history that surrounds them. Even his description [in 2001] of the Khmer Rouge years focus on cooking, finding shelter, and caring for his children.”(3)
1. Eward B. Fiske, “An Awakening in Cambodian Art: New Styles for New Subjects,” International Herald Tribune, Asia Edition, September 1994.
2. Bradburg Edwards, “An Enduring Intimacy,” Asian Arts News , November/December 1998.
3. Seth Mydans, “An Artist Preserving Life’s Little Moments,” New York Times, September 19, 2002.
Svay Ken’s paintings are for sale here and benefits KEAP’s core funding needs. Forty percent (40%) of the purchase price is tax-deductible as a charitable donation.
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