HCM City presents portrait exhibition 

 

The Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Association is holding a painting exhibition called “Portraits” featuring works by young Vietnamese artists.

 

The exhibition shows various moods in a painters’ life and includes works by Nguyen Van Hoach, Pham Huy Hoang, Nguyen Duy Nhut and Van Kim Toan.

 

The exhibition includes portraits of H’Mong and Cham ethnic minority girls, young modern people of today and weather beaten faces of poor laborers and immigrants.

 

In related news, the Dogma Prize for Self Portraits has just been launched by British collector Dominic Scriven and the Mekong Artists Company.

 

Winning entries will be selected for the ‘Vietnamese Self Portraits for the Dogma collection Exhibition’ that will take place at the HCM City Fine Arts Museum on July 12.

 

The Dogma Prize aims to encourage and foster self portraiture among emerging and established Vietnamese artists.

 

British collector Dominic Scriven has bought more than 70 self-portraits by Vietnamese artists since 1994, adding more to his collection annually.

 

Vietnamese historical film to be aired on TV 

 

The 70-episode Huyen Su Thien Do (Legendary History of the Capital's Relocation) scripted by Nguyen Manh Tuan and directed by Dang Tat Binh and Pham Thanh Phong will be aired on VTV3 channel on April 21. 

 

The film depicts events taking place at the end of the Pre-Le Dynasty and at the beginning of the Ly Dynasty, especially focusing on King Ly Cong Uan who moved the capital from Hoa Lu ( present day Ninh Binh Province) to Dai La Citadel (Thang Long and present-day Hanoi) in the fall of 1010.

 

The series is o¬ne of several features and TV films made since 2009 to celebrate the 1000th anniversary of Thang Long-Ha Noi. Unfortunately, it could not be released during the millennium celebrations.

 

The film left a deep impression on audiences in its debut viewing of its first volume in Ho Chi Minh City last week and received high praise from experts and insiders.

 

Huyen Su Thien Do is expected to be an attractive and high quality historical film and hopes to foster a love for Vietnamese history amongst the people.

 

This TV series produced by the Vietnam Feature Film Studio 1 and Sao The Gioi Co (World Star Group) will be presented at 9 pm on Thursday and Friday, each week.

 

Tuong Festival 2011 to be held

 

The national festival of traditional Tuong (Vietnamese classical opera) will be held in Quy Nhon city, in the central province of Binh Dinh, from April 25-30.

 

This year’s festival will feature the staging of many classical plays with the aim of preserving this traditional art form, said the festival’s organising board.

 

The festival will see the performances of numerous theatres and troupes include the Vietnam Tuong Theatre, Nguyen Hien Dinh Tuong Theatre, and Dao Tan Tuong Theatres; the Khanh Hoa Traditional Arts Theatre; Ho Chi Minh City’s Boi Art Theatre; the Hue Royal Traditional Arts Theatre and the Thanh Hoa Tuong Troupe.

 

This festival which is organised by the Performing Arts Department of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, provides an opportunity for professional Tuong troupes to introduce and promote many plays and discuss the preservation of traditional Tuong drama.

 

Sketches highlight artists’ bravery during war

 

The club of war veterans on Tuesday unveiled an art exhibition ‘revolution war and armed forces’ at the HCMC Museum of Fine Arts to remember Reunification Day (April 30).

 

The show has 255 works including 167 sketches, 57 oil on canvas paintings, seven ceramic works, five wooden carvings, seven lacquers and others made of silk, paper powder, synthetic materials, bronze, water color and paper. Works have been made about the resistance and soldiers’ dark memories.

 

The works are considered historical documents so that the young generations can learn more about the nation’s fight for freedom. The sketches are testament to the courage of the artists who had to take a risk to record dangerous moments of the Vietnamese resistance war.

 

The exhibition, at 97 Pho Duc Chinh Street in District 1, runs until April 30.

 

Forget the soaring city heat and escape to green heaven

 

Nguyen Tuan Duc’s ‘Green Nature’ which opened at Tu Do Gallery on Tuesday gave visitors an escape from the scorching city heat.

 

It features 21 oil on canvas artworks depicting stunning landscapes across the country the artist has visited such as Nha Trang, Dalat, Danang, Binh Thuan and An Giang.

 

The artist also displays cramped alleyways or old streets in HCMC where he was born and bred.

 

Duc, who graduated from HCMC Fine Arts College, said: “Nature always gives people inspiration to appreciate art, feelings of peace and tranquility. I just want to keep those emotions alive and that is why paintings were born.”

 

The show runs until May 16 at the gallery on 53 Ho Tung Mau Street in HCMC’s District 1.

 

Photographer Pham Cong Thang’s ‘Moments’ on display

 

An art photo exhibition ‘Moment’ by Pham Cong Thang opens at the Information and Exhibition House in Hanoi on Saturday.

 

With 30 years of experience as a professional photographer, Thang has filtered and recorded moments, states, emotions, tones of nature and people in his shots. Works on display will be arranged in many themes including landscapes, human portraits, and animals via children’s eyes.

 

The show also features the work ‘Nguoi choi dan ghi ta’ (The man plays guitar) which won the prize Grand Concours International in France and the photo ‘Thanh Than’ (Carefree) won gold medal at the international photograph contest held in Sri Lanka.

 

The exhibition at 45 Trang Tien Street runs to April 29.

 

Fava’s Black blood will open in Hanoi

 

An oil painting exhibition called “Black Blood” by French artist Pierre Fava will open on Thursday at L’Espace in Hanoi.

 

His paintings are regarded as both violent and gentle. With Fava, monochrome is the expression of the purity of materials, the way to bring mildness and subtlety to forms.

 

Fava uses black as the main color for his monochrome paintings because of his passion for this color and its symbol which is close to his spiritual mood.

 

The exhibition, at the French Culture Institute, 24 Trang Tien Street, runs until May 17.

 

Ukrainian pianist to raise cash for deaf kids

 

Ukrainian Igor Chystokletov will perform at the Conservatory’s Music Concert Hall on Friday at 8 p.m. to raise money for children with hearing deficiencies.

 

The program named “Sound and voice for hearing-impaired children,” organized by the HCMC Sponsoring Association for Poor Patients, will also feature performances by Vietnamese artists such as Pham Hong Anh, Nguyen Do My Quyen, and Vo Ngoc Dieu Tinh at 112 Nguyen Du Street in District 1.

 

Artists will perform piano works of classical musicians such as Mozart, Brahms, Tchaikovsy, Dvorak, Rachmaninov, Gershwin, Arensky and Chabrier. Chystokletov, who has lived in HCMC for more than 10 years, obtained a master of music degree from the Odessa Conservatory in 1994. He taught piano at HCMC Conservatory of Music until 1999.

 

PV