“Village River” By Thai Van Nguyen
The 4th Young Art Exhibition - Hue 2019 introduces to the public 43 works by 40 young artists of different circles, aged under 40, including students, art lecturers, artists, both young and senior, who have the same passion for searching the beauty of the young.
“Beauty of Nature” by Vo Quang Phat, “Village River” by Thai Van Nguyen, “Scar on the Cabinet” by Mai Minh Quy, “Revival - No. 3” by Nguyen Thi My Tam, "Nameless - No. 5 by Nguyen Trung Kien, etc. are slices of life, showing the artists’ explorations on the road of creativity.
According to the introduction of Nguyen Thien Duc, the artist, Chairman of the Fine Arts Association, all those unique, vivid, and impressive works were created recently in 2018 with their love and from their desire to prove themselves. Their explorations and discoveries in the past year can be seen clearly from the variety of genres, themes, techniques, materials and styles.
Besides the freshness in their style, many works are still experimental. Some works are solid in style, clever in expression and competent in using techniques and materials, proving the artists’ hard working and enduring creativity.
Many works bring promising artistic pleasures, showing their road from discoveries to professionalism. They reveal the young’s conception of human life and their ways of expression when facing current issues in the modern life.
The viewer’s emotions are also attracted and led by artistic messages full of metaphors behind each work. I stopped for a long time before the installation work “Scar on the Cabinet” by Mai Minh Quy to feel the sympathy, or to be exact, the compassion for the loss of and the obsession from obsolete objects.
“Scar on the Cabinet" by Mai Minh Quy
An unfinished cabinet with floating pieces, surrounded by wrenches, attached to an "old-fashioned" sewing machine by a sheet of thin cloth is the artist’s thought about family. The wrenches represent the father's working tools; the sewing machine is the mother's means of livelihood; the conflict between father and mother in the daily life leaves scars on their child's heart.
That cabinet with incomplete pieces symbolizes a family. It is like a family that needs care and constructing. This work marks Quy’s maturity, from ideas to composition, to how he creates the space and makes use of old materials though he graduated from Faculty of Art, College of Arts, Hue University just two years ago.
Thai Van Nguyen's "Village River" touches the viewer's feelings with the gentle, lovely and sparkling beauty of the river in the countryside. With mature strokes and style, the painting looks so classical that, at first glance, it is thought to be the work by a certain experienced artist, not a newly-graduated student. The cohesion between the topic, the content and the style makes the painting more concise and valuable, reaching the "top" of art.
“Beauty of Nature” by Vo Quang Phat is his own search of what he is exploring. The way he mixes colors and materials in his painting creates aesthetic feelings for the viewer. If “Scar on the Cabinet” and “Beauty of Nature" are their explorations in contemporary art, “Village River” is classical. They are all successful works that won Young Art Prizes by Vietnam Fine Arts Association in Thua Thien-Hue.
Young Art Exhibitions (the fourth so far,) create playgrounds for artists, introduce new works, discover, nurture and motivate young artists. After each exhibition, the organizers see new hopes with the appearance of many artists who are young but can do great things.
With rich themes and ways of expression different from those of experienced artists, young artists may be a little bit immature and their works may be off the conventional standards. But they have their own attraction. This shows that Hue art is not only the well-known names, but the succession of many young generations as well.
Story and photos: Trang Hien