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BUI VAN QUANG
AMONG CREATION BOUNDARIES
Dr. Phan Thanh Binh
Rector of Hue Arts University
When talking about the artists , one of the names which is often mentioned with respect is artist Bui Van Quang because he does not only have good professional skills and a strong creative ability, he is also one of the artists who has won various prizes. Quang is neither a young artist nor an old one. Quang was born in 1964 and his paintings have been chosen for four National Arts Exhibitions, which is organized every 5 years. He has joined in 9 international exhibitions for individual or group in France, Germany, Korea, HongKong, England, China, ect. and other 15 domestic exhibitions.
During 5 years studying at Hue Arts University, Quang was always the best student. He had a passion for arts and he did not hesitate to accept new concepts, to experiment and research so that the lesson could be new and he could get good results. I remember that, at that subsidizing time, in teaching the school appreciated academic and theoretical way in choosing topics, Quang avoided these by drawing extra-curricular paintings which were very impressive and strange. At that time he still drew workers, city girls, country girls, objects, landscapes but his paintings were not realistic like common drawing way of other Arts Schools in Vietnam.
His paintings always showed that he wanted to …?……, twist the shapes and make them disproportioned. He was brave to devastate freely at some part of a picture. Sometimes he dared to abstract a part of a shape or an object. You should know that at that time of changing, the students who drew like Quang were easy to be noticed and it was difficult for them to avoid being questioned because of their “divergence of the Socialistic Realism”.
Therefore Quang was considered to have the character of an artist of a new generation. He was quiet. Sometimes he was thoughtful and worried about new things without fatigue. He was the man who always wanted to manage himself to show his limitless passion for creation. These were the works of his student time with some swinging of adventure which could change a point of view or a familiar habit in arts creation. Fortunately, in Hue Arts University at that time, Quang was not exception. Moreover, open-minded trend at that time seemed to become more strengthened in training way of this school, so he still studied and finished his first step of study though there were some difficulties.
After graduating from university in 1989, Quang returned to Nha Trang. He spent a lot of time on looking for a job but with his preference of freedom and sincere determination, he selected his own way to go. In early 1990, painter Bui Van Quang was one of the first people who opened his own gallery in Nha Trang with proper management and advertisement like a professional gallery where the artist painted and lived on drawing and selling his works.
At first, though he got more advantages than other artists, he did not draw much in the way of “producing paintings” like some artists of that time who knew how to keep up with the times. With seclusion, quietness and firmness, Quang made a face for himself in the life of arts in Nha Trang. They saw that Quang suddenly became “a phenomenon”, a young artist who became famous soon, and an artist who did arts with two aspects which were drawing and introducing paintings to public in the way of trading. He was a real and patient artist. He wallowed in his passion and he was very careful when choosing his best paintings for exhibitions including Southern Central Vietnam exhibitions, national exhibitions and international ones. He was also an artist who has to maintain his spirit energy highly because he must not stop drawing every day.
In order to maintain and balance the creation boundary, works introduction, to maintain the existence of his gallery, he sacrificed much to paint beautiful pictures, to live on selling pictures. Therefore he always had to face to the most discerning matters of arts market as well as the fix of invisible boundaries between arts and living. Among the artists owning galleries in Nha Trang, Quang had a specific face with a firm stuff and self-confidence. He had to accumulate experiences in painting and to learn how to organize activities at his gallery at the same time. We can say that thanks to gallery activities, it was easy for him to recognize that the trend in choosing paintings of collectors leans toward popular themes, national tradition, villages with their natural and simple beauties. These themes will be still the subject exploited without interruption by many artists in many ages.
Besides, Vietnam countryside with profound and elegant beauty of traditional and cultural values was a strong attraction for foreign visitors and arts collectors. This made him feel secure about and more confident of his drawing trend. Therefore, Quang was seen, for a time, strangely unaffected and sincere when he kept drawing, without tiredness, cows, buffalos, flocks of chickens, thatched cottages with smoke in the afternoon, fresh yellow haystacks, green meadows with wild flowers etc.
In fact, this trend is not strange to artists living in Northern Vietnam who have drawn villages with spirit marks, village festivals, gracefulness in the figures of country girls, plainness and simplicity of objects, gloominess and quietness of the paths which are zigzag and vacillating beside rows of green bamboos. But Quang does not follow the common way of spirit, festivals. He finds there a simplicity, peace and love to the yellow, red, orange, green of remote memory of villages, of imprinting memories, vague agitation which make artists feel loved forever. Even cows, the image appears in many paintings of Quang's, are very different. We can see at each cow his particular view angle. He transfers his love and feeling which is never boring to the orange, red, black and unpolished edges. His variation of quite scrawling drawing way with love is not only seen at street vendors, country girls and village market or common still-life such as a chair and a cat, a vase of flowers etc.
Quang's paintings show that he is not constrained to follow models. He draws as naturally as he breathes. He is liberal in a large area of colour and he knows how to detail a certain area or picture to make his paintings more contrastive and logical. Therefore, along with the themes of village, he also draws festivals in Highland, late afternoon sea view, still-life in a house or charming and sweet city girls. Quang's paintings now become more and more "mature", where we see his liberal, exact, sometimes formidable drawing way. Quang is no longer academic like before. His paintings are more colorful with both hot and cold colors but not in a jumble because he localizes them in his own drawing way. Perhaps he must have experienced much in his job so that he can show his deep love to the country and fatherland like this.
Being born, growing up and living in Nha Trang sea city but artist Bui Van Quang has not drawn sea directly. He has used the saltiness of the sea, scorching heat of sun and wind in the open sea to draw any activities of inhabitants he sees, from the image of fisherman, sea and beach, village to objects quiet but familiar to country or city children. Quang's paintings are ones with landscapes, work and life of peaceful, simple and deeply human Vietnamese. People in his paintings are not separated as in other artists. They are more closed thanks to his complexion, lay-out and the linking of pieces of picture and colours.
After some of his discoverys and creations, Quang seems to slow down to look at himself, at the arts path that he has been in. And this path is neither too long nor too short to create an aspect of Quang in arts life of the area.
Quang has contributed a lot to arts life of the area and the country with 2 prizes from Vietnam Arts Association, 7 prizes in area exhibitions, 4 prizes from Khanh Hoa Provincial People Committee. Besides, his paintings have been collected by Vietnam Arts Museum and some Vietnamese and foreign collectors. With success and passion for creation, artist Bui Van Quang deserves to be voted by Khanh Hoa artists as Director of Vietnam Arts Association in Khanh Hoa. He is an artist who has brought success and pride to the arts life in Nha Trang, Khanh Hoa nowadays.
