Nguyen Tu Nghiem

For forty years, Nguyen Tu Nghiem has drawn upon the arts of the village to shape a distinctive modern Vietnamese art. He sought inspiration in the country’s traditional culture rather than in the art of the west. A trailblazer and model for many Northern artists, young and old, Nghiem’s work vividly demonstrates the kinship between traditional Vietnamese culture and the spirit of western modernism. « After I learned about traditional culture, I found it easy to understand Picasso. »

Student of the first class of the Fine Art School of Indochina, he joined the Resistance forces in 1945 and taught in the Viet Bac Fine Arts College. Though he had learned western techniques at the School, after 1954, Nghiem « searched for my own way » through the study of Vietnamese culture-temple, pagoda and funerary sculpture, woodblock prints, the architecture, dance and music of the village. His paintings of village dancers and festivals, national myths and literature, and zodiac figures have captured the immediacy, energy, and innocent exuberance of these village arts.

He passed away this summer 2016.

• Career of Nguyen Tu Nghiem

  Date of birth: 1922
  Finished 4th year at the Ecole Supérieure des Beaux - Arts d Indochine (1941-45). Graduated in 1952
   Successive functions:
  1945-46: Member of the Nam Dan - Nghe An Liberation Committee.
  1946-47: Painter of the 3rd Interzone Information Service
  1947-52: In charge of the painting studio of the Viet Bac Resistance Literature and Arts Union
  1952-54: Taught at the Resistance Fine Arts School in Viet Bac
  1954-83: Member of the Vietnam Fine Arts Association Executive Committee
  1959-60: Taught at the Vietnam Fine Handicraft School (Now Industrial Design College)
  1961-1962: Cadre of the "Creation" section of the Vietnam Association of Visual Artists.
  From 1982 on: Retired from office, working as independent artist.
  
  Exhibitions and Honors:
  1944: First prize at Salon Unique for the whole work exhibited (oil and woodcut): Gate of Mia village, Rural Landscape, The Guard of the Temple of Literature
  1948: First prize at the National Resistance Fine Arts Exhibition for Guerillaman of Phu Luu village (woodcut)
  1957: Prize at the 1957 National Fine Arts Exhibition for The Buffalo Calf (lacquer)
  1970: First prize at the Moscow International Book Fair for designing the album of Vietnamese folk painting (I) published by the Fine Arts Publishing House of the Ministry of Culture.
  1971: Gold Medal at the GDR IBA at Leiptzig for designing the album of Vietnamese folk painting (II) printed by the Ministry of Culture Publishing House.
  1975: Prize at the Hanoi Fine Handicraft Exhibition for two lacquer plates.
  1985: First one - man show organized by the Vietnam Association of Visual Artists from March 15 to April 15,1985.
  1985: Official prize at the International Triennial of Realistic Art in Sofia (Bulgaria) for Ancient Dance I (lacquer)
  1986: Individual exhibition at the Museum of Oriental and Occidental Art in Odessa (former Soviet Union), sponsored by the Soviet Fine Arts Association and the Vietnam Association of Visual Artists
  1987: Offical prize at the International Triennial of Painting and Graphic Arts in Hanoi for Ancient Dance II (lacquer)
  1987: A number of small- size lacquers included in the collection of Vietnamese paintings (together with works by Bui Xuan Phai, Nguyen Sang, Duong Bich Lien) exhibited by the Vietnam House and the Overseas Vietnamese Union in Paris.
  1988: One - man show featuring the series Zodiac Animals at Gallery 7 Hang Khay street organized by the Central Fine Arts Company of the Ministry of Culture.
  1989: Group show toghether with other Hanoi artists in Ho Chi Minh city under the sponsorship of Gallery 7 Hang Khay Street.
  1989: Took part in the exhibition of painting, sculpture and ceramics fearturing 16 Hanoi an artists at the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum from Oct. 7 to 27.
  1990: Took part in the frist "EAST and WEST" International Exhibition - Vietnam, Sweden, the Uniet Stated - at the Exhibition Center on Hang Buom Street, Hanoi (Dec.23,1990 - Jan.23,1991) organized by the Hanoi Literature and Arts Union and the Swedish Fine Arts Insitute.
  1990: First prize at the 1990 National Fine Arts Exhibition for Giong (lacquer)
  1991-92: Exhibition "Uncorked Soul" organized in Hong Kong and Singapore by Plum Blossoms
      Regularly took part in almost all the periodic National Fine Arts Exhibition (once every 5 years), other colletive shows in Hanoi and exhibitions of Vietnamese Art in the (former) Soviet Union, China, Mongolia, East European countries, India, Algeria.
  1997 : Nguyen Tu Nghiem is one of five artists of Hanoi (Nguyen Tu Nghiem, Do Son, Tran Luu Hau, Dang Thi Khue, Nguyen Quan) and the artists of Saigon : (Nguyen Trung, Trinh Cung, Nguyen Lam, Ho Huu Thu) . Selected for introduction in the large work “ 100 key artists of South East Asia” (Southeast Asian Art : A New Spirit) as selected by, Museum of Singapore.
  
  
  Works are in the collections of:
  - The Vietnam Museum Fine Arts
  - The Hai Phong Revolutionary Museum
  - The Moscow Museum of Oriental Art
  - The Fine Arts Department (Ministry of Culture)
  - The Hanoi Company for Export and Import of Publications.
  - The Vietnam Shipping Company (Hai Phong)
  - Private collections in Hanoi and other cities, especially Thu Giang 's collection, as well as in foreign countries Sweden, France, Japan, the (former) Soviet Union, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Belgium, Swizerland and Australia...




• Gallery of Nguyen Tu Nghiem

  

  NTN21, 30x40cm

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