After the success of his two previous exhibitions in 2006 and 2007, the Vietnamese French painter, Robert Mihagui, is back with a new exhibition named “ HomeColor: West and East.” The exhibition will open tomorrow at Phuong Mai Gallery, 129B Le Thanh Ton Street , HCMC’s District 1.
The exhibition features 30 oil abstracts of the landscapes in France and North Vietnam. Everybody sees something different in Mihagui’s work  but the power of the sky, land and the water is in all of his paintings.
“Although I paint in an abstract style that many Vietnamese are unfamiliar with , the viewer can imagine magnificent mountains, gentle rivers, waterfalls, old houses and trees,”Mihagui said. He added that he wants to encourage his audience to view his work with the soul and not the eyes.
He chooses to exhibit in Vietnam instead of developed Asian countries like Hong Kong or Singapore because of a spiritual connection with this country.
“I always see images of where I was born in my mind’s eye, even in my dreams, which inspires me to paint in an amorphous style. I record the memories of my childhood using brushes and colors. I think, wherever you go, you always want to go back to where you come from.”
Born in 1945 in VinhPhucProvince, Robert left Vietnam at 13 with his French father and studied fine arts from 1961-1984 in Surgeres in France. Mihagui was interested in pictorial techniques and pigments and was greatly influenced by the works of Zaou Wou Ki, a Chinese painter. At the age of 25, he decided to concentrate his energies on a personal style which is somewhere between abstraction and postimpressionism.
The exhibition runs till Dec.18.

By MyTran

From The Saigon Times Daily.