Me and Them

2014 – ongoing

A Painting in Question

The Art-Book Editor

In the summer of 2007, Tawatchai travelled to Hong Kong to meet Philip Tsang, Asia regional manager of Taschen, to discuss publishing Thai editions of the Taschen Basic Art Series. Their meeting led to a long-term collaboration between two publishers from different continents.

In November 2009, twelve Thai-language titles were released simultaneously, offering readers clear, accessible texts and over seventy per cent illustration content. The series became widely popular and paved the way for future art-book translations in Thailand.

Years of editing and translating deepened Tawatchai’s understanding of Western art history, helping him reorganise his perceptions of artistic evolution. Yet he approached these books not only as an editor but also as an artist and art historian. Using colourful markers, he intervened directly in the printed images—seemingly playful gestures that questioned authorship and interpretation.

Between 2013 and 2016, he created more than thirty such altered books. His interventions—painting over forms, outlining objects, and adding his signature symbols—transformed these printed works into personal, critical reflections on the act of looking and learning from history.

Leonardo da Vinci & Tawatchai Somkong
LEONARDO, 2015

Raphael & Tawatchai Somkong
RAPHAEL, 2015–16

Peter Paul Rubens & Tawatchai Somkong
RUBENS, 2015

Lucian Freud & Tawatchai Somkong
LUCIAN FREUD, 2014

Reflection of Identity, 2004
Oil on canvas
85 × 100 cm

Tamara de Lempicka & Tawatchai Somkong
LEMPICKA, 2014

Gustav Kilmt & Tawatchai Somkong
KLIMT, 2014

Keith Haring & Tawatchai Somkong
HARING, 2014
Marker pen on book

Jasper Johns & Tawatchai Somkong
JOHNS, 2013
Marker pen on book

Willem de Kooning & Tawatchai Somkong
DE KOONING, 2013
Marker pen on book

Various Artists & Tawatchai Somkong
ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM, 2013
Marker pen on book

Various Artists & Tawatchai Somkong
LAND ART, 2014
Marker pen on book

White and Coloured

In his altered art books, Tawatchai explored the politics of representation, focusing on skin colour. Using translucent markers, he changed the skin tones of figures—sometimes only faces, sometimes entire bodies—while keeping their expressions visible. The shift was simple yet profound: a reconsideration of race and hierarchy within the canon of Western art.

As he leafed through these reproductions, Tawatchai noticed that nearly every figure was white. He wondered how these familiar images might appear if their subjects had darker skin. Once recoloured, the meaning of each image changed—the balance of social power reversed.

This exploration reached its height when he altered the complexions of sacred figures such as the Virgin Mary, Jesus, and even God in the Raphael and Da Vinci volumes. These acts challenged centuries of Western religious imagery rooted in Eurocentric ideals. Though the Bible itself scarcely mentions skin colour, art history has long presented holiness through whiteness. Tawatchai’s intervention asks: must divinity always be fair-skinned?

Lucian Freud & Tawatchai Somkong
LUCIAN FREUD, 2014
Marker pen on book (detail)

Leonardo da Vinci & Tawatchai Somkong
LEONARDO, 2015
Marker pen on book (detail)

Raphael & Tawatchai Somkong
RAPHAEL, 2015–16
Marker pen on book (detail)

Peter Paul Rubens & Tawatchai Somkong
RUBENS, 2015
Marker pen on book (detail)

The Order of Chaos

Tawatchai extended his experiments into books on modern art, where abstraction replaced realism. He introduced lines, dots, and symbols—his familiar visual language—into reproductions of works by Haring, De Kooning, and movements such as Land Art and Abstract Expressionism.

Unlike his earlier critiques of meaning and representation, these gestures focused on form. By tracing mountains, outlining rock edges, or drawing dotted clouds across landscapes, Tawatchai generated new rhythms of movement. His interventions animated the stillness of these images, creating fresh focal points that redirected the viewer’s gaze from nature’s vastness to the artist’s deliberate mark.

Collectively, these alterations reveal a shift in inquiry—from social and cultural critique to visual construction. The modernist pursuit of beauty through composition, rather than narrative or realism, allowed Tawatchai to engage directly with structure, balance, and perception. His “order of chaos” thus reinterprets twentieth-century aesthetics through his own contemporary sensibility.

Willem de Kooning & Tawatchai Somkong
ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM, 2013
Marker pen on book (detail)

Jasper Johns & Tawatchai Somkong
JOHNS, 2013
Marker pen on book (detail)

Mark Tobey & Tawatchai Somkong
ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM, 2013
Marker pen on book (detail)

Michael Hizer & Tawatchai Somkong
LAND ART, 2014
Marker pen on book (detail)

Peter Hutchinson & Tawatchai Somkong
LAND ART, 2014
Marker pen on book (detail)

Keith Haring & Tawatchai Somkong
HARING, 2014
Marker pen on book (detail)