Chuong painting

Passion leads painter to success
As the eldest son of one of Vietnam’s most noted writers, Kim Lan, painter Thanh Chuong is blessed by inheriting his family’s traditions as well as the ability to express himself through his talent. Though not following in his father’s footsteps, Chuong has made a marvelous success and is a big name in Vietnam’s artistic community.  Thanh Chuong started painting when he was five years old and has so far produced thousands of distinctive works, mostly portraying rural landscapes and women. In Chuong’s pictures, viewers sense a unique creativity and the beauty of traditional Vietnamese culture. He said he found love and inspirations from his father.
„My father’s passion has paved the way for me to access arts and painting. Though a writer, he was particularly interested in painting and advised his children to pursue this art form. During my childhood, my father often took me to visit his friends, many of whom were famed painters, and this sowed the desire of painting in my mind.“ Chuong said his father taught him to keep his own style at all costs, to live with it and to die for it because it is vital for the career of a painter. Without his father, there would never be today’s made-by-Thanh Chuong pictures. Over the past 50 years, life experiences, especially those gained during his military service, have reinforced Chuong’s exceptional painting style.  After the end of war, Thanh Chuong became one of the first Vietnamese painters to be involved in abstract painting. At that time, he felt that only the visual language of abstractness can fully express the obsession and adversity of war. But later, Chuong portrayed things around him from a more human perspective. His images appear to make people understand more about the value of peace. Most of his works during this period featured women, children and peaceful life in rural areas.
Thanh Chuong has also produced a series of self-portraits. He often draws himself with a face, which is round and a little bit out-of-the-ordinary. Chuong says this is a very difficult topic and a challenge for him because he has managed to make sure that each of his self-portraits in no way resembles another.  He holds that an artist must pick up new ideas from traditional styles and find new method of expression, differing from those of predecessors. The creativity of a painter should be imbued with Vietnamese cultural identity but should also be modernized in line with the flow of world arts.
Recently, Thanh Chuong’s picture „Buffalo Boys“ was sold for US$30,000 at an exhibition in Singapore. One of his paintings has also been selected by UNESCO for production as an international stamp.
Chuong says he is pleased with what he has achieved but adds that all this is in the past; the future is another story and an artist must always be on the move. He says the basic nature of art stems from people’s daily lives. Vietnamese painting is imprinted with spontaneity and with the simple innate relationship between humans and nature.  But, he adds, it has also been influenced by other cultures, particularly during the French colonial period.  It is time, he says, for contemporary Vietnamese artists to move out of the shadow of French style so as to form a painting genre imbued with the spirit of Vietnamese people. Painter Thanh Chuong explains, „I think a successful painter must present his own character and personality. He must show people what country and what culture he belongs to, in order to distinguish himself from others. But, he must also learn from the world of modern art to avoid being left behind.“ Thanh Chuong has recently established the „Thanh Chuong Palatial Space“ on an area of more than 10,000 sq.m in Hanoi’s outlying district of Soc Son. He says this serves as his workplace, an exhibition venue and a place, which domestic and foreign art lovers can visit. A wide range of painting works, wooden statues, ceramics and chinaware, representing Vietnamese cultural values are preserved and displayed at the site, showing their owner’s passionate love for arts.
Chuong says he regards the „Thanh Chuong Palatial Space“ as the artistic work of his lifetime.