HÀ NỘI — The meeting between US President Donald Trump and Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Chairman Kim Jong Un in Hà Nội caught the attention of the whole world, including local artists.

Painter Lê Đức Tùng drew an oil-on-canvas painting of the historic meeting between President Hồ Chí Minh and North Korean leader Kim Il Sung (1957) and two of Trump and Kim’s portraits.

“The summit taking place in Hà Nội is very special to me,” he said. “I painted the paintings in moved emotion mingling with pride. I finished them all in 10 days only."

His paintings are on display at the Vietnamese Culture Space, 16 Lê Thái Tổ Street.

Popular painter Trần Lâm Bình has nearly completed a project of paintings of Trump and Kim to greet the two leaders.

He started drawing Trump in 2015 while he has followed Kim since 2017.

“They are simply two figures I admire,” he told Việt Nam News. “The project is not only to greet the summit here in Hà Nội, but also my long-term passion.”

More than 100 portraits of Trump and Kim by Bình feature the two leaders in a good mood, in a pop art style with various striking colours like pink, orange and green.

“I hope they will be friends forever,” he said. “Though their summit did not reach any agreement, I’ll observe them and still continue to draw them.”

All of Bình’s paintings are on display at Olala cafe at 209 Thạch Bàn Street, Long Biên District of Hà Nội.

Bình said he did not worry for the future of his paintings as he had no intention to sell them. He would keep them all for himself and exhibit them to the public in an exhibition someday.

In June 2017, Bình displayed 30 paintings of Trump outside the White House in Washington DC.

Artist Nguyễn Văn Hổ, another painter inspired by the summit, said he paid attention to the two leaders since their first summit in Singapore.

In June 2018, he decided to make statues of the two figures.

He made a sculpture of them on composite material, which features Trump and Kim leaning on each other.

Hổ said he initially made sculptures of politicians to entertain his five-year-old daughter,.

Then a collector from HCM City bought the works, which encouraged Hổ to create more.

He said he had some versions of Trump and Kim pinned on a piece of wood, which may be used as a decoration on a wall. 

Hổ also drew an oil on canvas painting of the two leaders in only two hours. — VNS