The journey of painting "Earth" by artist Ly Truc Son

1.

The two special things about this exhibition are the materials used by the artist and the spirit expressed by the artist. As the name of the exhibition “Soil” suggests, the main materials that artist Ly Truc Son works with are soil and stone. These materials are taken from hills and mountains in different regions of Vietnam, then crushed, mixed with glue and painted on canvas.

If using soil and rocks as painting materials, there are other artists who have also used this method. Most recently, 4 years ago, in September 2020, also at the VCCA space, there was an exhibition "Where is that - Here is that" by the Dan Do artist group, combining music performances, displaying musical instruments, and paintings from soil - the author of which was painter Nguyen Duc Phuong, a member of the group. However, the soil paintings of painter Nguyen Duc Phuong give viewers the feeling of a relatively smooth, soft surface with the main brown and yellow tones; the paintings of painter Ly Truc Son are diverse in color, with a rougher surface. On the other hand, Nguyen Duc Phuong's paintings are figurative (drawing the activities of the Dan Do group), while painter Ly Truc Son is not figurative but his paintings are abstract, with the most comfortable spirit possible.

During the first week of the exhibition, a viewer shared directly with the artist: “Newcomers here don’t understand anything.” The artist replied: “This is not something you do to understand.” He believes that in art, it is best to just look at the work, observe and feel, because specific instructions make the viewer more lost. Perhaps this is also the reason why the entire gallery does not attach specific captions to each painting.

Many colleagues praised “Dat”, and the material used by the artist is one of the main reasons. The surface of the painting is rough, but the colors in the painting are fresh, smooth, resonant, and deep... This is a “clean painting” (artist Hong Viet Dung). Artist Ly Truc Son believes that the spirit of painting is more important than the material. The material is a technical choice that the artist himself finds suitable to express. Even his concept of abstract painting, he does not define: “This is what I do, I do it like that. My tendency, my artistic taste is like that.”

According to sculptor Dao Chau Hai: “The art of Ly Truc Son here is a very difficult art to understand. This art is not for the public or for the public at a high cultural level.” The sculptor himself admitted that although he is a professional, he is not sure that he fully understands the painting language of painter Ly Truc Son.

2.

Within the framework of the exhibition, the art talk on October 5 with the participation of speakers: painter Ly Truc Son, art researcher Vu Huy Thong, coordinator - curator Do Tuong Linh provided the public and art lovers with a comprehensive view of the author's creative work process; making the door to "Dat" more open.

According to researcher Vu Huy Thong, the paintings in “Dat” are not so sublime that they are not for the majority, but on the contrary - they are for the majority, easy to access. The friendliness and lack of distance, according to the researcher, first of all comes from the materials used by the artist. Comparing paintings with oil paint (refined, packaged in tubes, using linseed oil as a binder to increase glossiness), for example, viewers easily feel “shy”; paintings from soil - paintings of natural origin, the most ancient of cultures - have the ability to directly affect the emotions of the viewer. Moreover, the artist’s mindset: Working very naturally with a very large plastic basin in which soil is mixed with binder and then applied and plastered on the canvas surface like a bricklayer; the natural shaping of the painting without any feeling of constraint or force... has brought vitality and closeness to the painting.

Painter Ly Truc Son was one of the artists who studied for more than ten years at the Vietnam College of Fine Arts (now Vietnam University of Fine Arts) from elementary to college, and then was retained to teach. On the one hand, he was a thorough researcher of drawing, on the other hand, he was exposed early to paintings by famous Vietnamese painters such as Nguyen Sang, Nguyen Tu Nghiem, Bui Xuan Phai, so he had two tendencies at the same time: both following the school's rules and aiming for modernity. In 1989, receiving a scholarship from the National School of Fine Arts, Paris (France), he had time to find the answer to the question "Why do people do that?" instead of "How do people do it?". After that, the artist lived in Germany for a long time before returning to his country (1998).

Born in Hue, raised in the Red River Delta, and living in Europe for nearly 10 years; not being noticed for his reputation; painter Ly Truc Son quietly and quietly worked to find his own path. For him, “Painting has its origin in the primitive: Art must originate like that. If we only inherit what is modern with painters and schools, that is fine; but that is not my path”. Painter Ly Truc Son’s path is to find the most ancient things to the most modern things, to have all of those things in himself.

The greatest contribution of painter Ly Truc Son through the exhibition "Dat", according to sculptor Dao Chau Hai: Painter Ly Truc Son, through the language of art, has expressed the perception of traditional aesthetic values ​​of the Vietnamese people in the flow of fine arts since Vietnam had the Indochina College of Fine Arts until today, which very few painters can do. "When looking at Son's works, through the rough, rugged surface, I read the grace, the quiet beauty, very delicate but not ostentatious - that is one of the very important elements of Vietnamese aesthetics" - said the sculptor.

Sculptor Dao Chau Hai also believes that painter Ly Truc Son is an aesthete, never accepting anything that is not beautiful. He is a person who has a very good connection with nature, plants, soil and rocks, so choosing soil and rocks to paint is very suitable for his physical condition. As for painter Ly Truc Son, riding a motorbike dozens of kilometers every day to his colleague's studio to work in a spacious space that gives him a feeling of leisure is truly "his lair"; being able to paint a number of large-sized paintings in just 3 years still feels "unbelievable".

Answering the question: “How long does it take to create a work?”, the artist replied: “You have to live a long time, you can paint quickly.” Because for the artist: “Everything comes from within you... You live with what you have created, it recreates the environment, it nourishes what you are doing. So when you paint abstractly, it continues the flow”. “Sometimes people do something and then they don’t know. I have never had enough time to summarize my life. I always say: Just keep doing it... Still continuing...”.

At the age of 75, returning to natural soil and rocks, creating paintings for myself and others to enjoy; perhaps just living with this, the door to "Earth" has opened.