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Warashoon, Decha (1945--) By Galloway, Charlotte
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Decha Warashoon was a member of the vanguard of Thai artists who brought Southeast Asian art to international attention. After graduating from the Fine Arts program of Silpakorn University in 1969, Warashoon established himself as an artist of note, winning multiple national Thai art competitions. His time at Silpakorn coincided with an overhaul of teaching methods in the arts that saw contemporary Western modernist styles actively incorporated into the curriculum. He experimented with abstraction and Minimalism, incorporating painting, printmaking, watercolors, and mixed media.
Warashoon continues to develop his artistic style, incorporating geometric and sinuous forms created in mixed media. His works are often inspired by emotional responses to life experiences, and bring together texture and muted colors. A retrospective of his works was held at the National Gallery in Bangkok in 2003, and in 2007 he was named National Artist of Thailand in the Graphic Arts, and has since taken up the post of professor at King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology at Lat Krabang.