In early March 2023, Vy Gallery successfully held the exhibition “Envoy of art” of the late artist Nguyen Tri Minh. His works evoked love for nature and the country, and were also full of longing and nostalgia for his homeland.
In the 3-storey area of Vy Gallery, 24 paintings by artist Nguyen Tri Minh were delicately displayed and introduced to everyone. With the theme of nature, each work took us through different poetic spaces. It can be the Giverny region of France, the scene of the horses running wildly, or the house and the waterfront, the simple boat. Enjoying the artist’s paintings, we feel like standing in that beautiful scenery, immersing ourselves in nature and forgetting our worries. Ms. Kim Uyen – visiting the exhibition on a weekend morning said: “I like the feeling of being immersed in art, seeing many aspects of the world through the artist’s inner mind. Nguyen Tri Minh’s paintings are rich in emotion and narrative quality, despite that most of the paintings have a bright and clear vibe.”
The most prominent painting is a large-scale water lily pond picture in 125x345cm size. Visitors were also amazed by this fairytale-like beauty, many of whom even thought that the work was reminiscent of Claude Monet’s paintings because of its romantic and poetic gorgeousness. The colors from dense to light, from dark to bright, from cold to warm were shown with flexible transitions on the painting, making it impossible to take your eyes off.
Many visitors got immersed in the paintings so much they forgot the time and confessed that they were “bewitched by the paintings”. Collector Van Quan said that artist Nguyen Tri Minh did a great job in promoting the beauty of nature through large-scale paintings and murals.
Through nature paintings, the artist also expressed his nostalgia for his hometown. He and his partner – Mrs. Pauline Nhung Nguyen settled abroad and rarely had the opportunity to visit their homeland. According to Mrs. Pauline, the artist painted with memories, love and an insatiable nostalgia. Perhaps, that’s why the artist painted with a high sense of authenticity, as if he observed with his own eyes and redrawn it. There were visitors who immediately recognized the land in the painting without reading the title because the subjects were drawn in details, expressing the Vietnamese identity.
The work depicts the scene of an early fish market
The dearing river scene in the Southern region in Nguyen Tri Minh’s paintings
The Envoy of art exhibition is the dedication from the late artist’s wife. The artist passed away in 2010 and since then, Mrs. Pauline has always struggled to bring his paintings back to Vietnam for relatives and friends near and far to admire. In 2023, she chose Vy Gallery as a place to entrust her husband’s artworks – marking more than 10 years of Nguyen Tri Minh’s exhibition in Vietnam. The event not only brought artistic and learning values but was also full of affection, and moreover, the love for homeland of the expatriates.
Collector Van Quan and Mrs. Pauline Nhung Nguyen were happy because they fulfilled her husband’s wish
Vy Gallery is honored to display the paintings of the late artist Nguyen Tri Minh and introduce them to young people. During March 3 to March 12, a large number of art lovers came to the exhibition to share good values and love for nature and homeland. This is the true meaning that artists always aim for – they are supposed to act as envoys connecting people from all over the world.
Artist Nguyen Tri Minh had always been enthusiastic about his art work.
Artist Nguyen Tri Minh was born in Cho Lon. He graduated as a valedictorian of Gia Dinh School of Applied Arts, class of 1942-1946. He had mastered using many materials such as oil paints, watercolors, acrylics, and lacquers… As numerous people believe, Nguyen Tri Minh was a pioneer Vietnamese artist in oil painting with a palette in the South since 1949. Ten years later, he was invited to participate in the first season of the Biennale de Paris. His forte was landscape painting. When he settled in the US, his annual basic drawing class at a university in New York was always overloaded with students. After many years of artistic activities, he seemed to have become an envoy of art between Vietnam and other countries.
