VietNamNet Bridge – Poet and director Phan Vu, who is also a painter, is displaying 25 of his oil paintings at the newly established Binh Minh Gallery in HCM City.

Multiple meanings: One of 25 oil paintings at the Em oi! Ha Noi pho (Ha Noi Streets, My Love) exhibition by film and theatre director Phan Vu, who is also a poet and painter. (Photo courtesy of the organiser)

The exhibit, called Em oi! Ha Noi pho (Ha Noi Streets, My Love), features a colourful world of love, women and flowers.

The 92-year-old said these pictures are selected from several hundred works that he had been painting for decades.

"I found that painting contains all the forms of film, theatre and poetry, which are all parts of my life," he said.      

He said he used vibrant colours to paint his dreams.

Vu’s works are abstract and offer a multiplicity of meanings. 

Vu is known for his films and plays, including Nhu Mot Huyen Thoai (Living as a Legend), which portrayed the life of national heroine Vo Thi Sau.  

His love for painting began in 1997 when he found that his newfound vocation could refresh his soul, he said.  

“My works are like a mix between my internal life and the outer world," he said.

One of his featured paintings is Duong Cam Trong Can Nha Do (Piano in a Destructive House) in oil.

He uses red to depict a nude woman lying on a piano in the dark. The image evokes a sense of time standing still.

The work reminds people of one of Vu’s favourite poems, Em oi, Ha Noi pho, which was once set to music by famous composer Phu Quang of Hanoi. Many women see themselves in this song.

Vu has organised several exhibitions at home and abroad.

Vu’s exhibition will close on July 28 at 145/38C Nguyen Thien Thuat Street in District 3.

Source: VNS