KVT – Excellence at Art Museum

KVT is really impressed by the men from Hai Phong

SORRY FOLKS…….IT ENDS ON SUNDAY AND IT IS REALY REALLY REALLY REALLY GOOD!!!!!!!!!!

You walk into the first gallery and, if you come from a Western country that has a collection of late 19 th century Realism art, you have a moment’s déjà vu. If you’ve got a bit of art history behind you, you may think ‘Courbet’ and be quite correct. Then you do a delightful double take and realize the Vietnamesation of the Realism and probably accredit it to the Social Realism movement that was dominant pre Doi Moi……but whatever aspect you take (I could even give a post modern slant to it) the paintings by Vu Ngoc Vinh are quite stupendous.
If you are a painter you’ll be way up close, nose to the canvas delighting in the use of oils. At times the warp and weft shows through. At others the paint is thick and buttery. At others, sweeping.

If you are a person who likes to observe people, in this case ordinary man/woman, or, like me, are a voyeur of the passing throng, you’ll be totally fascinated by the characters depicted. If you are a writer you’ll be engulfed by the tales they want to tell.

The smallest, ‘A Miserable Fisherman’ is a humane study in despair or madness or grief and the eyes definitely do have it!

The battered, old and well-used chesterfield chair encompassing a fold of rope can be both emotionally warm or chilling when you consider it’s connotations. I loved it and kept on being reminded of all those old sofas and couches that Lucien Freud used to drape his nudes all over. Take the rope away and you just want to curl up in it with a good book and a hot cup of coffee, sinking into contours worn by generations of others.

Now, the day I saw these beauties, I just got back from yet another a mountain trip to two of my favorite towns, Than Uyen and Nghia Lo and the faces and figures of the people there were almost mirrored in the two large works.

“Hope” is a stunner and, like a lot of viewers passing through the exhibition, I kept studying its details. Although my images don’t do real justice, I hope that you get a feel for its essential essence.

‘Returning From a Funeral’ is Courbet’s ‘Burial at Ornans’ brought to a conclusion and it is wonderful to behold.

The characters and their mute tales are indelible.

The next gallery is a complete change and holds three very wonderful Surrealistic works by Mai Duy Minh, and one of an old lady’s hands that sort of provides a good connection to the Realism you are leaving behind.

Two of the works definitely agree with the dictates of poet and critic, Andre Breton’s 1924 ‘Surrealist Manifesto’ which says that Surrealism was a means of reuniting concious and unconscious realms of experience so completely that the world of dream and fantasy would be joined to the everyday rational world in ‘an absolute reality, a sureality’.

Once again, painters will be nose up to see the detail and brushwork and then will stand back and marvel at the use of glazes.

‘The Promised Land’

is a vast and almost scary tale with those two great and gnarled hands morphing out of rock and banyan trunks with giant chopsticks aloft to either rescue or condemn, or even make a meal of the victim. The details are fascinating but due to the brilliant gloss of the works, hard to get amateur images of .

“Long Bien Bridge’

is the most fascinating depiction of that iconic edifice that I’ve ever come across and outdoes most others I can think of, be they photo, film, print or painting, by a mile. The use of cooking utensils as accomodation, vehicles, structures and refuse is amazing. The lonely and forlorn boat people huddled in one corner speak volumes about a society bereft.

“Line of Clouds’

is almost dwarfed into insignifigence by the other two but once you fall into its soft green-ness you aren’t disapointed and you realize its understated beauty and message.

Punctuating the paragrapghs of Realism and Surrealism are a series of seascape water colors that provide a relief from the grandeur on either side. These beautifully executed pieces by Bui Duy Khanh have a western feel to them and a use of light that makes them shimmer. In fact, a solo exhibition of his work would fill a gallery with dancing light. Western but Vietnamese! If you’ve ever been to a fishing village in southern Thanh Hoa on a day when the sea mist has lifted and the sun sparkles on rippling ocean, you’ll know what I mean.

People who love watercolors or who like to do them will be totally enchanted.

An exhibition I’m so glad I managed to capture for my mind.

The artists are from Hai Phong and I certainly want to see more.

Its’s a pity that renting art spaces to show your work is so expensive that it too often necessitates artists combining in group exhibitions. These artists deserved a solo each!