VietNamNet Bridge – Artist Nguyen Van Thanh will open his lacquer exhibition entitled “Life” today, November 1, at Art Gallery, HCM City.
Thanh was born in 1981 in the southern province of Soc Trang, in a farmer family with six siblings. He graduated from Soc Trang Junior College of Culture and Artistry in 2002, with the major of fine arts. At the age of 20, Thanh moved to HCM City to work as iron worker, aluminum worker and drawing as customers’ requirement to earn money for the university entrance examination preparation course. He entered the HCM City University of Fine Arts at the age of 25 and graduated in 2010, at the age of 29.

“In 2009, I happened to meet a famous Vietnamese–British painter who pointed out to me some limits of Vietnamese fine arts and some artistic subjects which students haven’t got a chance to approach. He claimed that Vietnamese painters are rather affected and tended to lessen their egos. They just draw basing on foundational knowledge from school but not dare to discover and create new things. I reckoned that it is essential to do one’s best to searching for new things to produce any painting genres and raise the current works to a higher scale,” Thanh recalled.

“I think that the combination between Eastern and Western culture in paintings will be more philosophical, and initiate more various and profound subjects. Thence, I reckoned of a new school of thought, a completely independent penmanship that ‘decorating style and cubism’ are combined between the East and the West.

To have enough money for pursuing the career of lacquer paintings, Thanh convinced his family to sell more than 20 acres of field, a plot of land and mortgage their house. Repressing his sadness of being considered to be “a bad son who ruins his family” by his relatives, he became more determined to go ahead in artistry.

After the first failure, Thanh’s paintings have been highly evaluated. He has succeeded in making the cracked lacquer paintings with lots of rough lines, with different heights and with the supplementation of silver and gold which made the artistic works keen and righteous.

His individual exhibition held last November in HCM City, entitled “Thang Long – A thousand years and modern lacquer paintings,” with 57 lacquer paintings, was a big success.

“I have been studying five kinds of materials: Traditional lacquer paintings, modern lacquer paintings, oil paintings, acrylic, and synthetic material. I will study copper-curved paintings, and silk paintings,” Thanh said.

Thanh has participated in many exhibitions in Vietnam and organized two solo exhibitions. The one that opens today is the third.

“I highly appreciate Thanh’s labour, effort, creation, diligence in studying. He has studied and generated some new materials which enrich lacquer and oil paintings. Not all new graduates have such an individual paintings exhibition,” said critic Truong Phi Duc, vice rector of the HCM City University of Fine Arts.

Thanh is one of several modern lacquer painters in Vietnam. All of them manage themselves to study for paintings.

“When writing the fine arts commentary, usually it is easier to write about the artistic stature. To me, it is the most joyful and happiest to write for the unknown young painter who has strong determination and powerful inner force as Thanh. His inner force is clearly shown through his studying and creating ability. Thanh’s artistic works alternatively express musical feature. I believe Thanh can make further progress,” commented critic Phung Quoc Ham.

Lacquer paintings by Nguyen Van Thanh:



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