NGUYEN HA
He
started painting often in late 80s and early 90s and his works of art
truly surprise us with their unique beauty and energy. His experiments
with traditional lacquer during 1960-1970 made his lacquer paintings
have a mysterious beauty typical of lacquer, just like his predecessor,
master artist Nguyen Gia Tri who is the king of lacquer paintings in
Vietnam.
Despite
his age and all the ups and downs in his life, the life of an
individual who has danced through all the four key notes of life: joy,
sadness, anger and love, Nguyen Ha always present himself to us as
someone whose passion for life is abundant and overflowing. His openness
and joyful laughter bring us to endless open-ended stories, mixed up
with both memories of the past and moments of the present. For one
moment, he can be lost in deep thoughts. And just one moment later, he
can overwhelm us with his sharing on his paintings and his friends’
paintings…. We often find ourselves rearrange the stories we hear from
him, connecting the many dots in his life. The result is a long story
about the life of an individual and a personality; of a man and an
artist. A master artist once talked about the values that help to
develop a great artist. First, it is his ability to learn and his
mentors, then art schools. Artist Nguyen Ha (born in 1933) is fortunate
enough to have both the ability and the mentors who are his friends and
his teachers. His friendship with master artists like Nguyen Sang, Duong
Bich Lien, and prominent painters like Luu Cong Nhan, Nguyen Trong Kiem
… has nurtured in Nguyen Ha his passion for art, even in his most
difficult years.
Like
many artist of his generation, Nguyen Ha did not paint much in his
young years (during the 50s and early 60s of the last century). He
started painting often in late 80s and early 90s and his works of art
truly surprise us with their unique beauty and energy. His experiments
with traditional lacquer during 1960-1970 made his lacquer paintings
have a mysterious beauty typical of lacquer, just like his predecessor,
master artist Nguyen Gia Tri who is the king of lacquer paintings
in Vietnam. The language that Nguyen Ha used for his art succeeded in
making the full use of lacquer as a medium, with its typical elegance
and subtlety under its scratches; the visible and the invisible existent
simultaneously of the traditional lacquer technique. It is far
different from the simple and flat blocks of lacquer paint, gold and
silver which is so commonly seen in current artists.
Nguyen
Ha’s paintings help us to understand him more. We can see the wisdom
and the youthful humor of a man who is old enough to understand the
limits of life and the infinites of art, so as to let go, to wisely feel
and love, and to forgive generously … towards life and man.
As
he often said to younger artists, painting is ultimately a process of
“passion” and “compassion”. The end in art is like a vision far away
from the artist but magically guide and control the life of the artist
along the endless path of creativity and soul searching.
Nguyen
Ha is one of the very few remaining artists who worship the world of
deep emotions, of remote nature, and of compassionate conversations, a
world full of eternal desires for Man, for women and love, and for
peace.
Nguyen
Ha’s art is young, energetic, free and honest, leading us to his garden
of love and peace. Looking up from that garden, we can see colorful
clouds floating in the sky as if they were floating through a man’s life
… Cloud, water, air and the endless conversations of nature. … In them,
we can clearly see Nguyen Ha, his creative space, and creative energy.
Hanoi Studio