Female artists celebrate beauty of life

CO2 The Silent Killer by Bui Mai Hien

HA NOI — Visitors to the Maison Des Arts exhibition by four female painters will enjoy the energetic atmosphere of colour, sound and movement entitled Joyful Women.

There are more than 50 works on display by Le Thu, Bui Mai Hien, Tran Thi Doanh and Suoi Hoa. The artists find charm and attraction in different ways, which they represent in their own individual styles using different materials.

Joyful Women is about the thirst for life. It is more a celebration of beauty, rather than beautiful women.

Hien is noted for her lacquer abstracts that use pieces of gold, silver and egg shell.

Female energy: Cheo Stage by Suoi Hoa.

Her paintings, which have been exhibited abroad, include Dancing, The Spirit Lullaby, and Expectant Mother. Typical of lacquer painting, the more layers of paint, the more colours mixed, the greater the surprise at the end. Onlookers see in the stratas of colour layers of meaning.

Khen Dance depicts movement and rhythm through the billowing dress of a girl.

Hoa’s paintings are also abstract. However, she expresses feeling primarily through the use of black and white. When she does use colour, the contrast captivates the onlooker. In her work Nha Hat Cheo, an actress in an orange dress is singing and dancing while a musician plays a traditional instrument.

Unlike her peers, Le Thu represents the beauty of life through the use of spheres and triangles. Her work is beguilingly simple yet full of emotion. She prefers soft colours, particularly light pink, which creates the impression of something gentle, smooth and comfortable.

Visitors to Joyful Women will recognised Tran Thi Doanh’s works by her predominant use of red. She mostly paints ethnic people in mountainous areas. She is on record as saying that she is deeply moved by the red of sunset over the mountains and by the red on ethnic people’s costumes.

Doanh follows the realism style. She depicts daily life in her paintings, which take viewers on an imaginary journey.

The four artists are representatives of their generation. Prominent paintings include Nha Hat Cheo by Suoi Hoa and Expectant Mother by Mai Hien, according to Tran Khanh Chuong, chairman of Viet Nam Fine Arts Association.

One visitor to the exhibition, Trung Thanh, said he loved the contrasting styles of the four artists.

Complementing the exhibition are works by artists for the opening of Maison Des Arts. They depict dances from India, Arabia, North Africa, Greece, Turkey and Viet Nam.

The exhibition runs until January 31 at 31 Van Mieu Street, Ha Noi. — VNS