VietNamNet Bridge – Tu Do Gallery is hosting an exhibition on artworks of the late Vietnamese artist Choe (Nguyen Hai Chi), giving a chance for local art lovers to admire two collections which are on display in Vietnam for the first time.

Late Vietnamese artist Choe (Nguyen Hai Chi). (Photo: Internet)

 

Choe was an international artist/cartoonist who had many collections but rarely displayed them in Vietnam. Along with the two collections which have been kept by the artist’s family, on display are 14 of Choe’s works made in oil on canvas collected by the gallery.

The first collection is ‘Women of My Country’ with 10 cartoon artworks which was exhibited in Tokyo in 1995 and the second is ‘Vision d’Ete 1998’ with more than 20 oil on canvas pieces which were exhibited at l’Hotel de ville, Savigny-le-Temple in France.

Works of Choe are made in diverse materials from oil on canvas, pencil nib, water color, paper and silk.

Like other cartoonists, Choe has a lot of metaphors and ironies in his cartoons behind humor and jokes on the surface such as in Husband and Children, Cyclo, A method of teaching, Fishing, Getaway from Bottles or Planet and Dustbin.

“I am really interested in Choe’s cartoons as not only do they make me laugh but also make me think about the scathing sarcasm as well as very sensitive and smart ideas about many fields from the destiny of women, environmental protection, social morality, education as well as economic issues,” a guest at the gallery said.

Choe favors ladies in portraits and their daily activities such as Schoolgirl, Young girls, Dalat in Evening, Life and Young girl in flying hair. He seems to sense deeply the fates and hardships of Vietnamese women in the past and wants to cry out their dreams, and maybe that is the reason why Choe depicted them in a very carefree and peaceful nuance and settings.

If will be a mistake if we forget to mention his style and method in silk material that are very different from those by other Southern artists. As a self-taught artist departing from his cartoon background, Choe’s style is a harmony of bold, gutsy strokes and lavish color.

In oil, beauty of women seems to be more visibly charming and more smoothly depicted in Harvest, Young girl and a rambutan and A Young girl in Blue. Choe uses his brush and skills as he plays with color to express his love of nature in Birds, City, Nature and Life or Twighlight.

Like his character as a very gentle, good-natured, friendly and easygoing person, Choe uses do paper and water color to express his passion on peaceful and rustic images that Vietnamese can see around them such as in Two boys, A peddler, Fishing, Village teacher, Mother and baby Dancing with fans and Passing the bridge.

Many portraits of Vietnamese musicians, painters, poets or journalists have been made in Choe’s unique style in diverse materials.

Born in 1944 in An Giang, Choe was an internationally acclaimed cartoonist, writer, poet and composer. He died on March 12, 2003 in Virginia in the U.S. He has given many solo and group exhibitions in HCMC and the U.S, France, Japan and Sweden.

His cartoons have been published in numerous local and international newspapers and magazines. The show runs until May 31 at the gallery, 53 Ho Tung Mau Street in District 1.

Source: SGT