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Passion for painting: Lotus Nude, oil on canvas. |
HCM CITY — The name of Rung is not unknown to art lovers. A graduate of the Hue College of Fine Arts in the sixties, he held his first solo exhibition organised in the former Sai Gon, now HCM City, in 1960.
Since then he has taken part in many others, sometimes solo and sometimes with friends organised in Viet Nam and the US. His works have found their way to many art collections, both at home and abroad.
Patiently following the difficult path of art, the 69-year-old has created more than 2,000 oils, watercolours, acrylics and lacquer paintings and many ceramic works over the decades.
Rung's 17 paintings in the current exhibition at Gallery Tu Do typify the different periods of his life.
"The exhibition is to celebrate my 50 years in painting," said Rung, whose real name is Nguyen Tuan Khanh.
"I continue to paint. My passion for art never fades," he added.
Rung's paintings have attracted the public with their meditative world, their alien ambience and their controversial colours and compositions.
His passions and feelings are seen through an abstract medium.
The boldness of his creations can be seen in several paintings at the exhibition.
He paints men with strong muscles and wild eyes in Nguoi Cua Bien (Men of the Sea) and describes the hard struggle of a group of people trying to free themselves from darkness to enter a bright region in Su Chien Thang Cua Tri Tue (Victory of Wisdom).
Rung praises the beauty of women and nature in several works including Khoa Than Hoa Sen (Lotus Nude) and Me Vuon Xuan (Mother of Spring Garden).
The exhibition continues at Tu Do Gallery, 53 Ho Tung Mau Street, District 1, HCM City, until next Monday. — VNS