A painting by Claudia Borchers. Photos hanoimoi.vn

HÀ NỘI — An exhibition honouring friendship is displaying work by artists from Spain, Germany, the US and Việt Nam at a private museum in downtown Hà Nội. 

Entitled Friendship, the exhibition presents a multidimensional visual landscape in which painting and sculpture co-exist, interact and resonate with one another.

Participating artists include painter Solidad Fuentes, former Spanish Ambassador to Việt Nam; German-Vietnamese painter Claudia Borchers; sculptor Nguyễn Tiến Dũng; and American-Vietnamese artists Minh Nguyễn and Văn Dương Thành.

Each artist brings to the exhibition a distinct visual language shaped by different cultural, historical and creative experiences. These differences form the core spirit of friendship, highlighting the capacity of art to foster dialogue among individual artistic identities.

According to Thành, the exhibition is an opportunity for her to express gratitude to companions who have accompanied her for more than half a century.

“Friendship here is not merely personal,” Thành said. “It also encompasses familial bonds and professional ties that transcend borders. We meet through a shared artistic sensibility and a common aspiration to use art in service of life, to spread compassion and nurture lasting friendship.”

A painting by former Spanish ambassador to Việt Nam Solidad Fuentes.

With 50 artworks on display, the exhibition offers viewers access to the creative output of different generations of artists bringing together humanistic values, emotional depth and bonds of friendship that connect Việt Nam with other countries. 

Viewers can clearly perceive the creative imprints of different nations and individual artistic temperaments in the pieces on display. Yet all converge on shared values: respect for friendship, life and the beauty of art, collectively conveying positive emotions to the public.

The exhibition includes paintings by Borchers, who studied with Thành at Việt Nam University of Fine Arts in 1963. After evacuating the city, they shared years of labour and painting in rural areas, pursuing art together and maintaining contact for more than five decades despite geographical and cultural distances.

Drawing on a European artistic foundation combined with living experience in Viêt Nam, Borchers’ works convey a contemplative and restrained philosophical tone, marked by balanced compositions and harmonious colour palettes that invite reflection.

Borchers is the daughter of journalist and revolutionary Erwin Borchers, who fought in the Vietnamese People's Army under General Võ Nguyên Giáp with the rank of colonel. He played a key role in persuading hundreds of French Foreign Legionnaire soldiers to defect to the Việt Nam League for Independence without a single shot being fired.

The exhibition also highlights the artistic relationship between Thành and Fuentes, who once served as a diplomat in Việt Nam. Fuentes’ paintings embody the free spirit of modern western art, characterised by expressive colour fields and direct emotional intensity. In her work, colour becomes a structural element, creating rhythmic visual spaces rich in emotional depth.

Sculptures by Dũng add a distinctive dimension to the exhibition. His works focus on the relationship between mass, void and emotion. Through persistent labour, stone is transformed into a medium for expressing spiritual values.

A sculpture of General Võ Nguyên Giáp by Nguyễn Tiến Dũng.

Nguyễn is a young artist, and is Borchers' great-grandson. His inclusion in the exhibition creates a generational link, evoking the legacy of Borchers, who devoted his youth to the cause of peace in Việt Nam as a member of the People’s Army.

Within the overall exhibition, Thành’s paintings are a gentle connective axis. Her works demonstrate a balance between personal emotion and formal philosophy, between eastern lyricism and disciplined compositional thinking.

Her brushwork and colour fields often unfold at a measured pace, with depth and restraint, suggesting rather than imposing emotion. Rather than seeking dramatic effect, her art favours endurance and quiet intensity, where each layer of colour represents an accumulation of time. This calm presence provides a sense of balance to the entire exhibition space.

The friendship exhibition runs until December 30 at Văn Dương Thành Museum at 210 Nghi Tàm Street. — VNS