Having opened for himself another eye to see and perceive things, Vu Hong Nguyen is yet reserved and reticent when he does not know where to go amidst an artistic life already on the wane after reaching its climax in the period of the open door policy when painting was free to stride with a view to keeping pace with the world’s contemporary art.
Looking at a mendicant bonze, Nguyen’s open eye is not dazzled by the saffron colour of the latter’s cassock. Rather, his dirty feet soiled by this world’s dust and sand are the true, purest footsteps which lead us to self us enlightenment.
Monochrome, hyperrealist as it is, Nguyen’s colour scheme is rich in dreams. Flowers and leaves have a simple attraction of their own due to their figures and colours completely free from any convention.
Vu Hong Nguyen’s abstract lacquer and oil paintings are like sleeping in the daytime
while seeking for nocturnal dreams due to the explicitness and impact of colours.
Abstract painting implies strange dreams that are undevisable and unreadable in the course of drawing. The paintbrush will pave a lonely road for itself down to the bottom of the black and profound painting board or float speechlessly on the surface of the immaculate canvas. Even when it is polychrome, Nguyen’s abstract colour scheme conveys nothing since the profound ideas relating to Man and his destiny paradoxically exist beyond the painting.
When one is young, the past can serve both as a mental support and a burden difficult to pay off when one is determined to light – heartedly advance towards the future.
I think Vu Hong Nguyen will by himself set to know everything when he indulges himself into phantasmagoric and extremely profound rhythm of lacquer painting.
Critis. Luong Xuan Doan