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| ‘Peaceful’ by artist Nguyen Quoc Dung will come on display at the exhibition ‘Drops of Spring’ at Tu Do Gallery - Photo: My Tran |
Twenty oil-on-canvas paintings come on display at the solo exhibition ‘Drops of Spring’ at Tu Do Gallery from this weekend.
Nguyen Quoc Dung made the pieces last year, depicting the beauty of ladies in the capital. In the paintings, the ladies dress in traditional costumes and look charming like youthful drops of spring. The settings present the romantic scenery of spring in Hanoi as well as the history of the 1,000-year-old capital. The meaningful backdrop colors see yellow as a symbol for the vitality of youth, green expressing hopes and dreams, red for fervidness with black depicting nostalgia.
With the style of realism, characters and scenery are expressed subtly in each line. Colors and lights are mixed harmoniously, making characters striking with metaphors indicated in each piece.
Some lotus leaves and water ladles are painted as if they were typical features of countryside, of peace and beauty while old-brick walls and lights of sunset remind people of the old quarters in Hanoi.
Dung graduated at Hanoi University of Industrial Fine Art in 1984 and he has given numerous solo exhibitions and joined group exhibitions in Hanoi, HCMC and the U.S.
He adheres to European Realism, a style consisting of numerous criteria that is now regarded as mainstream in Vietnam due to the establishment of Indochina Fine Arts College in 1926 in Hanoi. And while he’s obsessed by concepts of western classical art, Dung is also influenced by eastern culture and traditional style. This might be the only tiny deterrent in the understanding between viewer and painter.
The traditional oriental art always has a trend towards silence, simplicity, seeking the most inner feeling rather than the outer, vivid, visual effect. There will be no floating flowers; there will be only rocks and mossy gardens instead.
Dung’s clear painting style proves to be effective and fruitful. And while searching for what he has, Dung still paints eagerly in order to come closer to everybody to share and to devote.
The exhibition runs until March 3 at the gallery, 53 Ho Tung Mau Street in HCMC’s District 1.
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