Lacquer art provides insight into local life

Traditions upheld: Nguyen Van Phuong's 120 by 160cm canvas depicts the Hoi Lim (Lim Festival), in the northern province of Bac Ninh.

HCM City — A collection of 45 works by veteran artist Nguyen Van Phuong is on show at an exhibition at HCM City's Tu Do Gallery.

The oil and lacquer paintings by the late Phuong of Ha Noi provide an insight into Viet Nam through its people and their lifestyles.

Using white, blue, black, red and yellow, Phuong captures the beauty of Vietnamese in daily life.

An oil painting, Hoi Lim (Lim Festival), is the highlight of the exhibition.

The 120 by 160cm work, in orange-yellow and coral red, features the famous festival Lim in the northern province of Bac Ninh, highlighting traditional Vietnamese culture.

Mua Xuan Hoai Cam (Emotional Spring), a 80cm by 98cm canvas, is a celebration of life and love.

"Phuong is one of our favourite artists. He began to exhibit his paintings at our gallery in 1990," said the gallery owner, Tran Thi Thu Ha.

Her gallery has several hundreds of his paintings, mostly works on canvas and lacquer.

Ha said people loved Phuong's works because "he combined the art of sculpture and oil painting, making his works quite lively".

"You will find love for life in Phuong's art," artist and art critic Dinh Cuong of the US has said about the late artist.

Phuong, born in 1930 in Ha Noi, started his career with his teacher, a German painter, in 1946. He later opened his first solo exhibition in Hai Phong.

In 1954, he moved to live in Sai Gon (now HCM City) and studied at the Gia Dinh Fine Arts College.

He showed his works in dozens of solo and group exhibitions in the city and exhibited in Japan, South Korea and Sweden.

He died in 2006 in Da Lat.

The HCM City exhibition, titled Mua Xuan Vinh Cuu (An Eternal Spring), closes on May 7. — VNS