Painter Rung celebrates 50 years of artistic discovery

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

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Rung celebrates 50 years of painting

A visitor looks at a nude painting by artist Rung at Tu Do Gallery in HCMC- Photo: My Tran

A painting exhibition by artist Rung will open at Tu Do Galley, 53 Ho Tung Mau Street in HCMC’s District 1 on Thursday, to mark his half century of painting.

The exhibition will feature 16 oil paintings on canvas, a pottery work, a print of painting that was produced in 1965 but since lost and 17 photos of paintings by the artist from 1986 to 1991.

This exhibition displays works from Rung’s exhibition last year “Thanksgiving for Woman”. Works include nudes, flowers and fields of dreaming with rainbows and clouds.

Viewers will see many images of female nudes flying through scenes of stars, gardens and vaporous spaces.

“Women’s beauty is always my big inspiration. Their beauty makes me fly and urges me to paint to express my admiration, my love, my respect and my passion for women,” said Rung.

War is also another inspiration for Rung, not only in paintings, but also in most of his stories published in the U.S.

Rung said he plans to open a class in HCMC to teach people how to use colors to relax, to enjoy their hobby, and express their emotions . “People have a lot of ways to relax and express their feelings such as singing, playing piano, cooking but they do not know that using colors is also an ideal way to bare the emotion.” The painter, who held his first exhibition in 1960, added that 50 years is a long time to live but is very short for the arts, so he will continue to paint and to write until the last breath.

Born in 1942, Rung was born Nguyen Tuan Khanh. Since his first show, he has had 21 solo exhibitions and joined 30 group exhibitions in Vietnam and abroad. Rung has held about eight solo exhibitions in Vietnam. He has lived in California since 1994.

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