“Those memories have found a peaceful, romamtic atmosphere impregnated with the immense sadness of the rural areas.”
The “red Bamboo” collection on show at a HCM city gallery evokes that something about the countryside that remains in the soul of every Vietnamese citizen.
The familiar rural motifs of bamboo clusters,banana, rivers, boats and gardens are clothed in primary colours of red, red, yellow, orange blue as artist Nguyen Ba Tuan gives expression to his feelings about rural life in the country.
Chu Hong Tien, an art Critic in Ha Noi, says Ba Tuan is a daydreamer who encouters the countryside in the eternally warm aspirations of a peasant. Tuan, 34, graduated from the Faculty of Fine Art of Ha Noi school of Drama and Theater. Settling in Ha Noi, however, he has pine his home land, Ha Nam Provine, and this longing is reflected in his works.
Since he graduated in 2000, he has exhibited in many places around the country, and in Hungary (2005) and Poland(2006)
“I’ve liked painting, since I was a child. I would draw on anything possible-walls, book covers, rough paper, furniture, and wood even scrawl lines on the ground.
“My childhood was of a child pkaying in the poverty of the countryside along the Hong(Red) river Delta- Ha Nam which has lelt me with many bitterssweet memories. My plain and fond memories are about the poetic ChauGiangRiver, as well as my friend of the same age. We enjoy bathing in the river, playing hide and seek, football and fishing together. Those memories have found a peaceful, romantic atmosphere impregnated with the immense sadness of the rural areas,”Tuan says.
However bright and deep or hot or cold his colours are, the artist ‘ romantic and melancholy side permeates his rural landscapes.
The exhibition is on at 129 B Le Thanh Ton street, District 1, HCMCity, until October 31 – VNS -28/10/08
