Artist Ha Hoang Tung will display his portraits of Vietnamese farmers in Amsterdam. (Photo: news.skydoor.net)Hanoi (VNA) -Artist Hoang Ha Tung will display his paintings of Vietnamese and Dutch farmersat a solo exhibition in Amsterdam.
Tung went to the Netherlands on September 12 with 12 portraits of Vietnamesefarmers, which he painted from May to August using traditional Chinese ink andtraditional do (poonah) paper.
"Do paper and Chinese ink are very traditional of Vietnamese," Tungsaid. "But I will not use this material to paint Dutch farmers.Netherlands was home to many artists, including Van Gogh, the famousoil-on-canvas painter."
Tung will go on a field trip with two Dutch colleagues who will help him to getto know more about Dutch farmers living along rivers so that he can paint them,too.
"Vietnamese farmers represent water rice civilisation. But what aboutDutch farmers? I’m curious about them," said Tung. "It is interestingto make a comparison between West and East in art such as painting at theupcoming exhibition in Amsterdam."
Tung painted his characters, women and men, in black and white. Most are veryold and he found them through photos in a media data resource.
A woman named Hien in the northern province of Bac Giang is one of the charactersTung has painted. She is 92 years old and still herds buffalo. Her teeth arestrong enough to chew betel. Tung took about 30 minutes to paint her.
Another is Le Thi Hien, whom he found by chance in Cat Ba fishing village, nearHai Phong city. He saw her lighting a coal-stove, was impressived and quicklypainted her. She is 91 years old.
The paintings include one self-portrait in a mix of expressionalistic andsurrealistic styles.
Tung was born to a farming family in the northern province of Hai Duong. Hegraduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts Design, Hanoi Academy of Theatre andCinema. He has displayed his works at many solo and group exhibitions in Vietnam,France, the United Kingdom, Finland, Japan, the US, and Canada.
The exhibition in Amsterdam will be the third solo exhibition abroad followingthe first and second ones in the US in 2001 and in Canada in 2007.-VNA
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