Chavalit Soemprungsuk

Chavalit Soemprungsuk (Thai: ชวลิต เสริมปรุงสุข, 30 July 1939 – 27 April 2020) was a Thai painter, sculptor, and printmaker based in Thailand and the Netherlands. In 2014, Soemprungsuk was honored as a National Artist of Thailand for visual arts.^[1]

Soemprungsuk was born in Khon Kaen, Thailand, located in the country's northeast Isan region, on 30 July 1939.^[1] He studied at Silpakorn University in Bangkok, where he was one of the last students of the Italian-born sculptor, Silpa Bhirasri.^[1] Soemprungsuk then moved to Amsterdam to enroll at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten (State Academy of Fine Arts).^[1]

Soemprungsuk worked in several different visual arts throughout his career, including realistic and abstract paintings and sculpture.^[1] He focused on digital printing during the last ten years of his life.^[1] Most recently, Soemprungsuk returned to Bangkok in the spring of 2020 for a public exhibition as part of the 80+ Art Festival Thailand.^[1]

Soemprungsuk had several pre-existing conditions, including heart disease and lymphoma, before he began exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19 on 10 April 2020.^[1] He was hospitalized at the Onze Lieve Vrouwe Gasthuis (OLVG) hospital in Amsterdam on 17 April 2020.^[1] Chavalit Soemprungsuk died from COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands at OLVG on 27 April 2020, at the age of 80.^[1][2]