Artist expresses traditional and modern world in paintings

(Cinet)- About 100 woodblocks and paintings created by painter Tran Nguyen Dan are on display at an exhibition which opened at the Museum of Fine Arts in Hanoi on March 21.

Painting ‘The water buffaloes are the largest fortunes’

All artworks were created from 1967 to 2015 – incorporate many unique features of Dong Ho and Hang Trong traditional painting.
Dan is among the very few Vietnamese artists who have chosen to make woodblock paintings and follow his medium persistently. This kind of art form has made him popular, along with Do Duc, Mai Khanh and Tran Tuyet Mai.
The work entitled Di Cay (Paddy Transplanting) is one of his oldest works. The 15cm-by-25cm black-and-white painting depicts women who are transplanting rice seedlings against a background of a man ploughing with his buffalo.​
“I made Di Cay in my second year at the Hanoi College of Industrial Fine Arts. My teacher complimented me on the painting,” Dan said. “It encouraged me a lot.”
He made a number of other prints at that time, including the 45cm-by-80cm Con Trau La Dau Co Nghiep (The Buffaloes are the Largest Fortune). The print copy of that painting was bought by the Italian Communist Party.
The work entitled Ai Ve Thu Do (Who Returns Capital) is his latest work, made in 2015. The 120cm-by-80cm work has the Sword Lake at its centre, surrounded by other Hanoi landmarks such as the Dong Da Mound, the Flag Pole, the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and the One Pillar Pagoda, besides the Long Bien Bridge.
The painting was displayed last December during the National Fine Arts Exhibition 2015 in Hanoi. Da Nang Museum bought one of the six print copies.
Dan has established his reputation as an artist with a unique style since 1980. He gives prominence to national characteristics from layouts to carving lines and colours.
Born in 1941 in the northern province of Bac Ninh, Dan graduated from the Hanoi College of Industrial Fine Arts in 1970, before working at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s Department of Preservation and as deputy director of the Museum of Fine Arts.
In 2007 Tran Nguyen Dan was presented with the State Award for Literature and Arts, Vietnam’s second highest honour after the Ho Chi Minh Award.
The event will last until March 28 at 66 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street, Hanoi.
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