Lê Quang Đỉnh. — Photo courtesy of vccavietnam.com

HÀ NỘI — Artist Lê Quang Đỉnh suffered a stroke and passed away on the afternoon of April 6.

Contemporary artists and art enthusiasts in Việt Nam were astonished and saddened by Định's passing. He is regarded as one of the most significant modern Vietnamese fine arts painters and has significantly influenced the country's contemporary art scene.

Đỉnh was born in 1968 in Hà Tiên. He graduated from the University of California with a major in photography, then studied visual arts in New York. He then pursued an artistic path in the United States.

In 1993, he returned to Viêt Nam to live and work. Many of his works are well-received both domestically and abroad, such as Biển Đông Pishkun (Pishkun East Sea) in 2009 - a 3D tableau recreating the scene of a helicopter crashing when American troops fled HCM City in fear at the end of the Việt Nam War in 1975.

Among his most well-known pieces of art is The Farmers and the Helicopters, an installation that consists of a three-channel movie and a helicopter that self-taught mechanic Trần Quốc Hải and farmer Lê Văn Danh put together out of scrap.

The two farmers are transforming the helicopter — formerly used during the war to create suffering and violence — into an instrument to aid the agricultural industry.

The work was made in the form of a documentary combined with installation art displayed at the Moma Museum in New York, and was a significant part of the first impression artist Đỉnh made in the international artist community.

In addition to having more than 30 solo exhibitions in many countries, Đỉnh is also the co-founder of two centres, including Vietnamese Art Organisation in Los Angeles and Sàn Art, the first independent and non-profit art gallery in HCM City.

For his tireless dedication to Vietnamese contemporary art, Đỉnh received the Prince Claus Foundation award from the Dutch Royal Family on August 8, 2011. — VNS