Thawan Duchanee was born in the northern province of Chiang Rai in 1939. He studied under the late Italian sculptor Corrado Feroci, also known as Silpa Bhirasri, who first introduced modern art practice into Thailand. Later on Duchanee continued his education at the Royal Academy of Visual Arts in Amsterdam, thereby gaining a deeper understanding of Western artistic traditions.

Following his return to Thailand, Duchanee created a unique visual language which fused traditional Thai aesthetics and Buddhist motifs, with a sense of Western modernism. Marked in Duchanee's l compositions are the sense of swirling, almost ferocious, energy and explosive painterly expression. Duchanee favors bright ...