Artist reveres Buddha

Artist reveres Buddha and gods on canvas

Thirty-six large-sized paintings on Buddhism and Vietnamese Belief by Trinh Yen are on display at an exhibition which opened on Thursday.

"The oil paintings are impressive in with their rich Oriental style and underlying Western tones," said Associate Professor Nguyen Ngoc Dung, head of the Design Department at Ha noi Open University.

"The painter has astutely expressed in his work a realistic vision of the Vietnamese people’s religious space. The images of Buddha, saints or deities are ones that people hold close to their hearts," said Dung.

Yen has used various colours skilfully in depicting spiritual stories and portraits of Buddha and saints from Vietnamese spiritual history. One could see how moved visitors to the exhibition were; they stood amazed in front of his work.

"I can’t believe a painting can be as lively as this," said visitor Quang Anh. "I rarely visit the pagoda but understand Buddhism and I’m really impressed by Yen’s works.

"In a spiritual environment, saints are portrayed as solemnly yet benevolently whereas the artist’s vision is creative: he has portrayed an imaginative meeting with the saints and created such soulful images."

"I nurtured the exhibition over 20 years but this is my first solo exhibition," said the 59-year-old artist. "I have been practising and studying Buddhism for 40 years.

"I’ve always noted how in religious art, the influence is very Chinese. I wanted my work to feature Vietnamese Buddhism and beliefs."

This explains why Trinh Yen has painted Vietnamese historical figures such as Hung Kings, King Ly Thai To, Hero Tran Hung Dao and President Ho chi minh Yen referred to them as immortal gods in Vietnamese people’s hearts and minds.

Many have said that Yen’s artworks enrich Vietnamese Buddhist culture.

The exhibition showcases 36 selected works from over Yen’s 300 artworks on Buddhism.

"I intend to display drafts of celebrities’ portraits from Ly Cong Uan’s period to Ho Chi Minh’s on the commemoration of Thang Long-Ha Noi’s 1,000th anniversary," he said.

"Indeed, the artist has extensively studied a lot of folk legends, traditional history and culture in addition to his broad knowledge of Buddhism in order to create such splendid paintings," said Dung.

Beside painting, the artist also works as sculptor, writer and poet. He is director of UNESCO Centre for Viet nam Culture, Families and Clans.

The exhibition is on at 45 Trang Tien Street, Ha Noi.

(Source: VNS)

Tag: Buddhism , Culture , Environment , Exhibition , Ha Noi , Ho Chi Minh , Pagoda , Paintings , Thang Long , Viet Nam , Vietnam , Vietnamese

Artist reveres Buddha and gods on canvas

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