“She couldn’t study”, an oil painting on paper by late artist Tran Trung Tin
The first retrospective of unique pictorial creations by late painter Tran Trung Tin (1933– 2008) will be held at the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum in Hanoi October 18 – 30.
Said to be Vietnam’s greatest expressionist artist, Tin’s works done during the Vietnam War (1964–1975) capture the sorrow of people caught up in one of the most tragic conflicts of the twentieth century.
Born in the Mekong Delta, Tin joined the resistance against the French forces at the age of twelve and fought on the Cambodian front. At the end of the First Indochina War between France and the Viet Minh in 1954, Tin worked as a film actor and scriptwriter but he turned to painting later after becomeing a best friend of famous painter Bui Xuan Phai.
A museum statement says “Tin’s images of girl soldiers with guns and flowers, broken buildings and broken lives are balanced by tender depictions of lovers, mothers and spiritual renegades.
“His cityscapes and abstracts are ‘meditative retreats of loosely painted blocks in warm colours, a self-created visual sanctuary from the war raging outside.’
Major exhibitions of his works have been held around the world including solo exhibitions at the Singapore Art Museum in Singapore and the British Museum in London.
Vietnam Fine Arts Museum is located at 66 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street, Hanoi.