by Duc Ngoc
 |
Surreal life: The Exit, oil-on-canvas, by artist Nguyen Dinh Dang at an exhibition in Japan. |
HCM CITY — Music is the theme of an exhibition surrealist painter Nguyen Dinh Dang is holding at the Fazioli Piano Showroom&Art Gallery in Tokyo, Japan.
Opus 7 has 21 oil on canvas works by Dang, who is a physicist by training.
Clair de Lune and Allego con fuoco reveal the artist's love for music by composers Debussy and Chopin.
Other works like The Autumn Stair, The Metamorphosis, The Silent Piano, and The Exit capture the beauty of performers, both men and women, and their pianos in what is a memorable montage for viewers who venerate the romance of music and art.
Dang, 52, says he found a source of inspiration in music because "I loved painting and playing the piano when I was a child: In both, I could imagine my own world."
"I love playing the piano and painting because then my mind soars," the self-taught artist says.
One of the exhibition's highlights is The Exit, which depicts a beautiful Japanese woman sitting on a lotus in front of a piano, with pink, white, brown, and blue being the predominant colours.
He called this The Exit because he wanted to "come to my own world". Born in a traditional family in Ha Noi, Dang studied and got a doctorate in nuclear theory in Russia in 1985. He continued to study physics and mathematics at Moscow University.
Since 1994 he has been working for the Japan Physics and Chemistry Institute (RIKEN) in Wako city, Saitama.
He is a member of the Viet Nam Fine Arts Association and Japan Individual Artists Association.
He has organised solo and group exhibitions in Russia and Japan. His latest showcase in Ha Noi in 2007 left a strong impression on locals. — VNS