Attic Asian Art Finds

At the beginning of the summer Anson and I moved into a house. The house itself is almost 40 years old, made sometime in the 70's. The owner is a sweet man and said that we could have anything in the attic. Well as all moves are it takes a little while to settle in and get comfy so it wasn't until last month that we really began digging around up there. Lots of empty boxes and cardboard, some broken down boxes we can use for our next move as well, three typewriters (not even sure if they work), a couple of lamps that hang from the ceiling, some old light fixture covers and... paintings! Well, ok, I should say "A painting" and some other framed art, but still, what a find! I fell in love with it instantly! The photos do not do it justice.

It's an oil on canvas by NK. Kampan, a Thailand painter in the 1950-80's. I found hardly anything about him except a post on an art forum from his son, Palapan Kampan.

"...the full name of nk. kampan was Nikit Kampan. He was born in the southern of Thailand. He had never studied art in any school but with his talent he had become a front runner artist of Thailand. Before he began a professional artist he had ever been a teacher in a private school. He had ever narrated to me that he hoped to become a professional artist so he resigned from that school. He began creating his art works and trying to sell on street.

He told me that on the first year no one bought any of his work. in the second year, he intended to quit but the first picture had been bought by an american soldier ( during in vietnam war ). having known the style of his customers. Then he geared to response his customers. At the first decade he painted only water color picture. He change his painting style to oil color and never back to paint water color again.

He work in a Carrier of artist for more than 40 year. he died in 1993 by lung cancer. The number of his pictures was around 20,000 pieces. Almost of them scattered in america, Europe, and some part of Asia..." Palapan Kampan

Unfortunatly as you can see in the photo the bottom of the frame has had some watter damage. I think that I can replace the matt with some new upholstery fabric since it seems that is all that is damaged or perhaps take it to a professional framer and have it fixed. I tried to clean it with a damp cloth but it has been stained for too long.

Here it is again hanging over our mantle but without the flash.

 Also the three other framed pieces that I found as well. They look to be from from S. East Asia since the dancers resemble Javanese or Balinese dancers in traditional dress. Could use some cleaning (in these photos I had just taken them down from the attic). The frames also match the oil painting, interestingly enough, though I don't think they are works by Kampan, and none of them are dated or signed.

(a close up of one)