Since childhood, the “heaven-given” talent for painting has been revealed
In the quartet The famous artist Nguyen Tu Nghiem has an artistic life like no other. The famous artist Nguyen Tu Nghiem was born on October 20, 1922 in a family with a Confucian tradition in Nam Dan district, Nghe An province.
< p style=”text-align:justify”>According to artist Dang Tien, the famous painter’s father, Mr. Nguyen Tu Lai, became a mandarin, then resigned and returned to his hometown to reclaim land and establish Lac Lam hamlet and was revered by the villagers as a tutelary god. Tran Thi Luat’s mother was a literate person who encouraged her son to make clay statues from a young age, starting his artistic career later. The artist’s family has all 7 successful siblings.
The famous painter Nguyen Tu Nghiem and his wife – Thu Giang at his home in 2013. Photo: Nguyen Dinh Toan.
Painter Tran Khanh Chuong – Chairman of the Vietnam Fine Arts Association said that since childhood Hoa was eager to learn and loved to draw. When he finished primary school in Vinh, he followed his older brother to Hanoi to find painter Le Pho, who graduated from the first class of Indochina College of Fine Arts (1925 – 1930), to learn how to draw. He learned to draw passionately and soon revealed his “heaven-given” artistic talents. At the age of 19, Nguyen Tu Nghiem passed the entrance exam to the 15th Indochina College of Fine Arts (1941 – 1946). Studying with him were painters Bui Xuan Phai Huynh Van Gam Ta Thuc Binh…
In June 1945, famous painter Nguyen Tu Nghiem left the Indochina College of Fine Arts to return to his hometown to join the Viet Minh and became a member of the Administrative Committee of the Resistance of Nam Dan district (Nghe An) until at the end of 1946.
There is a very funny anecdote that during his school days the artist was very close to Bui Xuan Phai. The famous artists‘ course graduated at the end of 1946, but because of the National Resistance War, they did not receive the results in time. Therefore, there are documents saying that famous artist Nguyen Tu Nghiem graduated in 1952 from the School of Resistance Fine Arts.
The first work of famous artist Nguyen Tu Nghiem was an oil painting. “Guardian of the Temple of Literature” he painted in 1944 and has only one color patch. At that time, this work was highly appreciated as a modern painting and won first prize in the Unique Salon Exhibition at that time. At the same time, he also has two paintings “Gate of Sugarcane Village” and “Countryside Fields” which are also very famous.
Also according to artist Dang Tien in the early period of the Revolution. 8 famous artists returned to their hometown to take part in seizing power and then joined the district government. Previously, there was a document saying that the artist was chairman of the People’s Committee of Nam Dan district, but in fact he was mistaken for a man named Hoang Nghiem.
In 1947 the artist Nguyen Tu Nghiem went to the Viet Bac war zone to work at the Union Culture resistance war as an artist at Toan Dan Resistance Newspaper Song Lo Newspaper painted many propaganda paintings about policy guidelines…. In 1948 he worked at the Arts Association in Xuan commune Ang Phu Tho. Here he controlled the Xuan Ang studio, starting with lacquer painting and then specializing in this technique. At the 1948 Painting Exhibition welcoming the Vietnam Arts Congress in Dao Gia – Phu Tho, the color wood carving work “Phu Luu Militia” was awarded First Prize.
In 1951, when the School of Resistance Fine Arts was established with painter To Ngoc Van as principal, famous painter Nguyen Tu Nghiem and a number of students from the Indochina College of Fine Arts who had not completed the course were invited to return home. graduation paper.
A work of famous artist Nguyen Tu Strictly. Photo: Tran Khanh Chuong.
At that time he also worked as a school lecturer. In 1952, famous artist Nguyen Tu Nghiem was assigned to be in charge of the Art Studio of the Vietnam Literature Association. Here, together with a number of experimental painters, he explored special lacquer materials and brought cold blue-green colors into lacquer paintings, creating an important change for the development of traditional lacquer. President of Vietnam… The artist once said that he was not talented at all and only used blue paint (bleu de Prusse) to cover gold to make green according to the requirements for painting soldiers at that time.</p >
In 1954 peace was restored in the North, famous painter Nguyen Tu Nghiem returned from the Viet Bac war zone to Hanoi and worked at the Vietnam Arts Association. He was given a room at house number 65 Nguyen Thai Hoc, Hanoi along with many other artists such as painter Nguyen Sang Nguyen Phan Chanh Mai Van Hien Tran Dong Luong and musician Do Nhuan. This house is known as the Artist’s House.
For more than half a century living alone on the third floor of this “Artist’s House” area, painter Nguyen Tu Nghiem lived moved many people as they struggled to carry water from the market and cook in cramped spaces every day but were always immersed in painting
Late 1991 Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet provided an additional half-apartment on the ground floor of building A1 in the Trung Tu dormitory (which was the apartment where musician Tran Hoan lived) so that the famous artist could have space to paint. In 2003, with the money from selling two small houses in Nguyen Thai Hoc and Trung Tu, famous artist Nguyen Tu Nghiem and his wife bought a house at No. 8 Phan Boi Chau to have more space for living and painting.
“National quality and world class”
Since 1954, the artist continued to create All genres: pastel, watercolor, oil paint, lacquer. In 1957, he created the lacquer painting “The True Calf” following the direction of promoting the division of property after the land reform, which was highly appreciated by public opinion and received the National Fine Arts Award. This work was later stored at the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum. Later, he painted the theme “The Calf” many times and made a big splash in the contemporary painting world.
Drawings of the 12 zodiac animals of famous painter Nguyen Tu Nghiem. Photo: TKC.
According to artist Dang Tien, the artist went through a difficult time and he had to make a living by painting commercially with topics: Giong Kieu Ancient Dance… and depending on orders. Especially the paintings of “breeds” according to the twelve zodiac animals in the lunar calendar. From the exhibition “Year of the Dragon” (1988), new “animal” paintings were arranged into a system of “sixteen flower armor” according to the concept of Yin Yang and Five Elements.
Art critics at that time recognized that the paintings of famous artist Nguyen Tu Nghiem combined modern penmanship with traditional local thinking to create a unique identity. The lines, colors, and rhythm of the atmosphere are always stylized based on the motifs of Dong Son bronze drums, patterns of Ly Tran pottery, folk paintings, temple architecture, traditional opera and singing rhythms. Even though modern and stylized shaping techniques still evoke the climate of national beliefs – and neighboring Southeast Asian cultures.
One of the paintings on the theme ” Kieu” by famous artist Nguyen Tu Nghiem. Photo: TKC.
“The spiritual elements in the paintings of famous artist Nguyen Tu Nghiem tend to be mystical and make people feel drawn into them. ghost realm. Therefore, looking at all of his art, he followed the poetic poetics mystique. And each piece occasionally conveys a mystical feeling. People who cannot grasp this emotion think that he is fussy or eccentric, but we can understand that the nationalism in Nguyen Tu Nghiem’s art is not an intention to protect tradition in a conservative will but a need. The supernatural moves from the subconscious to consciousness and manifests itself into art. Ethnicity is not nostalgia but liberation and projection, a metaphysics that manifests into the form of a “legendary tale”. Only then can the contradiction in his paintings be resolved: traditional quality in the modernity of nationality and world class,” said artist Dang Tien.
Painting He has a native personality but is not “exotisme”. On the contrary, he is quite close to European Surrealism and the famous works of Chagall Miro… Even some Picasso paintings that he always liked. prefer. Nguyen Tu Nghiem’s painting “sixteen flower armor” is not the same as Tet is currently close to the “bestiaires” in the Western tradition that modern artists around the world often redraw. The coincidence is due to a common aesthetic sympathy for an era, not copying each other.
Ha Tung Long
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