A corner of the exhibition My Way by artist Ngọc Linh at 42 Yết Kiêu Street. VNS Photo Bình Nguyễn

HÀ NỘI — The exhibition My Way by veteran artist Ngọc Linh, 95 years old, is precisely that, a retrospective of his long life and career, showing all those personal reflections and special moments.

Artist Linh is the last of the 22 students who were on the Resistance Fine Arts Course from 1950-54, at the Việt Nam College of Fine Arts (now the University of Fine Arts), which was established in 1945 and enrolled the first students in 1946.

But two months later war broke out against the French and his studies were only resumed in 1950.

Some of 50 paintings at the exhibition are highlights from his long and distinguished career with a diverse theme focusing on daily life of ethnic groups in the northern mountainous region, landscapes, sketches, cinema posters and a set of seven sơn mài (lacquer) paintings.

"The artist doesn't paint about war although he has went through war time," said historian Dương Trung Quốc. "All of his works are about peaceful scenes and they are alive in their own way."

During his long life, the artist travelled from the north to the south, capturing all manner of national landscapes, along with some portraits, still life paintings and images of Hà Nội.

Artist Ngọc Linh and his wife at the exhibition. Photo from the Facebook page of artist Ngọc Linh

He approached all those themes with the same innocence, passionate and unique perspective, using a wide variety of materials including gouache, oil, silk and lacquer, mainly painting with bright colours.

"I love painting," he said. "The lands I have travelled through are always in my mind. I always want to draw paintings making viewers happy and to let them know how beautiful our country is. I also paint in a way that not only Vietnamese people, but also international friends can see that this is a Vietnamese painting."

Artist Ngọc Linh, real name Vi Văn Bích, was born in 1930 and belongs to the Tày ethnic group. As one the students of the course, he studied with popular painters Tô Ngọc Vân and Trần Văn Cẩn in the Việt Bắc resistance war zone.

Returning to Hà Nội after peace was restored, he was assigned to work at the Việt Nam feature film studios. He was responsible for the art for films in the history of Vietnamese revolution cinema, such as A Phủ Couple in 1959, Chung Một Dòng Sông (The Same River) in 1959, and Sao Tháng 8 (August Star) in 1976.

At the opening of the exhibition Linh also released his book Ngọc Linh - Hội Họa Của Mùa Xuân (Art of Spring). The bilingual Vietnamese-English title, over 360 pages, charts his 75-year long career of painting and set design.

It took him two years to create and introduces more than 200 paintings, with a foreword by artist Trịnh Lữ, and articles from researchers Vũ Huy Thông, Trịnh Xuân Hòa and Đào Mai Trang.

Ngọc Linh's precious quality of painting is that the images he creates have their own characteristics making the viewer to pay attention, according to Trịnh Lữ.

"Elements of stroke, light and dark and colours give the images the power of emotional expression," said Lữ.

"His painting quality is also shown in cinema works. It seems that whatever he wants to draw appears in his mind as a cinematic scene - a setting, a backdrop for a certain series of dramatic actions. He tells stories with paintings, that's probably why he seems happiest when drawing panoramic scenes of big stories, with mountains, rivers and villages stretching out."

The exhibition runs until March 5 at 42 Yết Kiêu, Hà Nội. — VNS