New creations by artists and writers are regularly introduced to the public.
Introduced for the first time to the public at the fine arts exhibition called Art Connection at Le Ba Dang Art Center on the occasion of 2018 Hue Festival, “Changes with the Huong River” by Nguyen Thi Hue impressed many viewers. This is one of the works representing the Hue style: gentle, soft and profound.
With synthetic silk, the painting portrays shiny golden Truong Tien Bridge. Her unconventional techniques make the painting a good combination of colors with a very profound effect. Especially, the bridge in the painting is gilded with silver and the sunlight with real gold.
In this painting, the sky, the land, the clouds and the water seem to mingle in the typical setting of Hue. As expressed by Nguyen Thi Hue, it is the sunlight plunging into the shiny golden river of Perfume, which she describes as coins of the old days. It is how she reminds people of the origin of the name Truong Tien as there used to be a coin mint in the area. Her painting won Prize A at the 5th Co do Literature and Art Prize.
In the field of theatrics, prize A goes to the play The Red River by Hue Singing Drama Theatre. The play is about the revolutionary war, the painful but heroic resurrection against the American by people in the Central.
Winning Prize A in the field of dancing, Menh Dat Troi (Fate) by Phan Hoang evokes in the audience various nuances of emotion about the destiny of man. He creates a very poetic stage and the perfect combination of choreography, including ways of expression, screens, sounds, light, etc., forming a lively picture about man’s desires in the modern era.
Prize A in Literature goes to the short story collection “In the Sound of Fire” by Le Minh Phong, one of the most notable postmodern prose writers of the Vietnamese contemporary literature.
“In the Sound of Fire” is a short story collection, less than 200 pages thick, containing 24 short stories. This is the work of a young man who wants to renew literature with new theories. Phong’s works are filled with metaphors and philosophy. Many literary devices are created on purpose and in harmony with new perspectives of contemporary aesthetics and philosophy in the world.
“In my creativity process, I always have the ambition to do something different from others, both older and ones of my generation. The collection is my experiments about art, employing forms, genres and literary devices to express content. This is my own attempt after the time learning about art movements and styles of the world,” said Le Minh Phong.
The 5th Co Do Literature and Art Prize awards 56 works by 56 artists and artist groups, including 8 A prizes, 19 B prizes and 29 C prizes. They are prominent works, selected from 158 works which enter the prize.
As commented by the organizers of the 5th Co do Literature and Art Prize, many works are of artistic and humane value. They reflect truly the quality of the cultural and artistic movement and the big number of artists of the province. The works that win prize A deserve being considered typical works of each field. Many works introduce Hue culture and people and the preservation and promotion of the heritage.
“Many works, including researches, are prominent, creative and original. They are the result of the process of learning, observing the real life, laboring, and expressing deeply moods through language, images and thoughts. Those works crystallize the depth and the width of reality and reach the heights of philosophy and aesthetics,” said Ho Dang Thanh Ngoc, writer, president of Vietnam Union of Literature and Arts Associations.
There have been many positive changes in creativity and research in such fields as folklore, theatrics, dancing, etc. The good thing is many young artists are proving themselves as promising faces in the fields of literature and art of the province such as Le Minh Phong, Phan Tuan Anh, Le Vu Truong Giang (literature), Nguyen Thi Hue, Le Ngoc Thai (fine arts), Nguyen Xuan Minh (architecture), Le Tan Thanh, Nong Van Toan (photography), Phan Hoang, Mai Trung (dancing), etc. These young and mature artists will be “sweet fruits” in the future.
Story and photos: CAT AN