Vietnamese painter joins Japan art
circle
(09-09-2005)
|
Innocence, oil on canvas by
Nguyen
Dinh Dang, is displayed at the Tokyo
Metropolitant
Art
Museum. |
HA NOI
— Painter Nguyen Dinh Dang was again awarded the
title
of Fine-Work Artist by Japan’s Shutai Art
Association
(SFAA), and this year was selected to become its
first
foreign member.
Dang
was one of only 18 painters out of 165 to receive
this
recognition at the SFAA’s 41th exhibition held at
Tokyo
Metropolitan Art Museum from September
1-16.
"This
is actually an annual competition in which SFAA
members
vote for the best works in the exhibition," Dang
explains.
Dang
sent his work to SFAA three times since 2003 and
won the
title of Fine-Work Artist once before in 2003 but
this
time was invited to be a member of the
association.
"I’m
proud to be the first foreign member of the
association
but it won’t affect my painting style," he
said.
This
year, 177 paintings by 165 artists were selected
from
480 submitted works. The artists with the best
works
were named Kasaku Saka which means Fine-Work
Artist.
The
Vietnamese painter thought his paintings The
Winter
Ocean and Innocence impressed the Japanese artists
as
they break the Japanese stereotypes of Viet
Nam.
"Many
Japanese artists told me that before seeing my
work when
they imagined Viet Nam they thought of war and
agricultural scenes with water buffalo and
beautiful
ladies in ao dai (traditional long dress)," he
said.
Dang’s
paintings reflect a new reality. The painting
Innocence
for instance depicts two youngsters who represent
the
new generation.
"This
innocent age is our future. The boy is my son.
He’s
Vietnamese but also cosmopolitan, bilingual," Dang
explains.
The 47
year-old artist, who earned a Ph.D and a Doctor of
Sciences degrees in Physics and Mathematics in
Moscow,
is a self-taught painter. He is a member of the
Viet Nam
Fine Art Association.
He has
been living in Japan since 1994 and works at the
Institute of Physical and Chemical Research of
Japan.
Dang’s
paintings are found in private collections in many
European and Asian countries including Viet Nam,
Indonesia, Austria and England.
The
SFAA or Individual Artists’ Association currently
has
140 members and was established in 1964 to
guarantee a
place where artists could show their works freely.
—
VNS |