Visitors at the exhibition. Photo: VNA

The Japanese collector has presented the city with 238 paintings in the collection and lent 49 others for 10 years.

On showcase this time are oil, watercolour and silk paintings by Nguyen Gia Tri, Tu Duyen and Cao Trong Them. Most of them were created between 1944 and 1993.

The exhibition will be the first among a series of displays to be held in the coming time to introduce the artworks to the public. The Da Nang Fine Arts Museum is tasked with the conservation and selection of works for future exhibitions.

Itoh, aged 80, began to collect works of Vietnamese painters after his first trip to the country in late 1986.

Since 2005, he has held a host of exhibitions in Japan and abroad in the hope that the valuable works will promote Vietnam’s historical and cultural values to people of other countries.

The collection includes works of many well-known painters graduating from the Indochina College of Fine Arts (the predecessor of the Vietnam University of Fine Arts), such as Nguyen Gia Tri, Tran Van Can, Tu Duyen, To Lien and Duong Bich Lien, among others.

The Japanese collector’s donation is of great importance in terms of diplomacy and people-to-people exchange between Vietnam and Japan, Vy said, adding that it also contributes to Vietnam’s fine art. 

VNA

Paintings of Vietnamese artists return home from Japan

Japanese collector Itoh Toyokichi donated a collection of 238 paintings by famous Vietnamese painters to the central city of Da Nang.