HÀ NỘI — About 40 Kim Hoàng folk paintings will be shown at the Exhibition House on 93 Đinh Tiên Hoàng as a part of a series of cultural activities taking place at the weekend walking street around Hoàn Kiếm Lake from June 15.

The event is co-held by the Việt Nam Ceramic Museum, Kim Hoàng Village and the Việt Nam University of Fine Arts. It is aims to offer local people and foreign tourists a chance to get to know more about Kim Hoàng’s folk paintings. 

Kim Hoàng is a famous genre of folk paintings in the northern Red River delta provinces dating back to the 18th century. Along with Hàng Trống and Đông Hồ, Kim Hoàng paintings were well received in the 19th century, but the tradition of making the paintings gradually declined and was ultimately lost in the middle of the 20th century. 

"Visitors will have the opportunity to participate in a wide range of activities such as making Kim Hoàng paintings and masks with artisans from Kim Hoàng Village and students and lecturers from the fine arts university," said Nguyễn Thị Thu Hòa, director of Việt Nam Ceramic Museum. "We are aiming the event towards children, and want to show them some of the restored paintings."

Preservation: Artisan Đào Đức Trung, the only artist in Kim Hoàng Village to successfully restore ancient paintings. — Photo Hà Tùng Long

Hòa began the folk painting project in 2015. She invited Đào Đức Trung from Kim Hoàng Village to restore the ancient paintings. But it was difficult to carry out the project because a flood in 1915 swept away most of the wood blocks there, and Kim Hoàng paintings were not made from 1945 - 1975. 

Hòa had to ask for help from museums and the collectors in Việt Nam and abroad. 

"We had to ask about 30 artisans from Đông Hồ Village; Hàng Trống Street and Sình in central province of Thừa Thiên Huế to help restore the wood blocks," Hòa said. "We have restored about 30 per cent of the ancient Kim Hoàng paintings."

A few ancient models featuring pigs, chickens and Han script are copied from wood blocks which are stored in Việt Nam Fine Arts Museum. The other models are about daily life, business activities and farming. They were made based on paintings printed in Imagerie Populaire Vietnamienne by French artist Maurice Durand. 

The Kim Hoàng folk paintings exhibition will open at 4.30pm on June 16 and run until June 18. The exhibition will introduce the history and techniques of Kim Hoàng paintings through a documentary. About 100 exhibits related to Kim Hoàng paintings will be displayed at the exhibition. 

A painting contest will be also launched to encourage children inspired by Kim Hoàng folk paintings to create their own artworks. The best artworks will be announced on the Full Moon Festival in September. — VNS