Chavalit Soemprungsuk a Thai painter, sculptor, and printmaker based in Thailand and the Netherlands died from COVID-19 at OLVG on April 27, 2020, at the age of 80.
In 2014, Soemprungsuk was honored as a National Artist of Thailand for visual arts.
Soemprungsuk was born in Khon Kaen, Thailand, located in the country’s northeast Isan region, on July 30, 1939. He studied at Silpakorn University in Bangkok, where he was one of the last students of the Italian-born sculptor, Silpa Bhirasri. Soemprungsuk then moved to Amsterdam to enroll at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten (State Academy of Fine Arts).
Soemprungsuk worked in several different visual arts throughout his career, including realistic and abstract paintings and sculpture. He focused on digital printing during the last ten years of his life. Most recently, Soemprungsuk returned to Bangkok in the spring of 2020 for a public exhibition as part of the 80+ Art Festival Thailand.
Soemprungsuk suffered from several pre-existing conditions, including heart disease and lymphoma, before he began exhibiting symptoms of coronavirus disease 2019 on April 10, 2020. He was hospitalized at Onze Lieve Vrouwe Gasthuis (OLVG) hospital in Amsterdam on April 17, 2020.