KVT’s December Diary …3rd… Nguyen Xuan Tiep @ the Art Museum

An atmosphere of peace and tranquility from 1995

Established and highly respected artist Nguyen Xuan Tiep excited a lot of his fans and admirers by announcing a return to the lime light after a long absence. And they went to the Art Museum last week loaded with garlands and floral tributes

Many were confounded and confused to see that the artist, rather than mounting a show of new works, had reversed the calendar 20 years to 1995 and artfully friezed the walls with delicate representations of trees on delicate poonah paper.

If you are in the two galleries by yourself the atmosphere is imbued with a sense of tranquility.

The artist states that he is unveiling a series of work called “Soliloquy” which he intends will address (and perplex?) a contemporary art scene which he believes is largely disoriented and lacking direction.

And perhaps he is doing the local art scene a service by challenging its serious practitioners and curators to debate and philosophize about the intent and value of contemporary visual art.

Each smallish work on paper behind glass is a single tree in a variety of simple landscapes, both figurative and abstract.

For me, many pieces were relevant to dire environmental issues that immediately confront us.

I enjoyed being a lone wanderer through Nguyen Xuan Tiep’s minimalist forest which is a-fluttering for a week in the Museum’s free gallery.