HCM City presents portrait exhibition

The Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Association is holding a
painting exhibition called “Portraits” featuring works by young Vietnamese
artists.

The exhibition shows various moods in a painters’ life and
includes works by Nguyen Van Hoach, Pham Huy Hoang, Nguyen Duy Nhut and Van Kim
Toan.

The exhibition includes portraits of H’Mong and Cham ethnic
minority girls, young modern people of today and weather beaten faces of poor
laborers and immigrants.

In related news, the Dogma Prize for Self Portraits has just
been launched by British collector Dominic Scriven and the Mekong Artists
Company.

Winning entries will be selected for the ‘Vietnamese Self
Portraits for the Dogma collection Exhibition’ that will take place at the HCM City
Fine Arts
Museum on July 12.

The Dogma Prize aims to encourage and foster self
portraiture among emerging and established Vietnamese artists.

British collector Dominic Scriven has bought more than 70
self-portraits by Vietnamese artists since 1994, adding more to his collection
annually.

Vietnamese historical
film to be aired on TV

The 70-episode Huyen Su Thien Do (Legendary History of the
Capital’s Relocation) scripted by Nguyen Manh Tuan and directed by Dang Tat
Binh and Pham Thanh Phong will be aired on VTV3 channel on April 21.

The film depicts events taking place at the end of the
Pre-Le Dynasty and at the beginning of the Ly Dynasty, especially focusing on
King Ly Cong Uan who moved the capital from Hoa Lu ( present day Ninh Binh
Province) to Dai La Citadel (Thang Long and present-day Hanoi) in the fall of
1010.

The series is o¬ne of several features and TV films made
since 2009 to celebrate the 1000th anniversary of Thang Long-Ha Noi.
Unfortunately, it could not be released during the millennium celebrations.

The film left a deep impression on audiences in its debut
viewing of its first volume in Ho Chi
Minh City last week and received high praise from
experts and insiders.

Huyen Su Thien Do is expected to be an attractive and high
quality historical film and hopes to foster a love for Vietnamese history
amongst the people.

This TV series produced by the Vietnam Feature Film Studio 1
and Sao The Gioi Co (World Star Group) will be presented at 9 pm on Thursday
and Friday, each week.

Tuong Festival 2011
to be held

The national festival of traditional Tuong (Vietnamese
classical opera) will be held in Quy Nhon city, in the central province of Binh Dinh, from April 25-30.

This year’s festival will feature the staging of many
classical plays with the aim of preserving this traditional art form, said the
festival’s organising board.

The festival will see the performances of numerous theatres
and troupes include the Vietnam Tuong Theatre, Nguyen Hien Dinh Tuong Theatre,
and Dao Tan Tuong Theatres; the Khanh Hoa Traditional Arts Theatre; Ho Chi Minh
City’s Boi Art Theatre; the Hue city Royal Traditional Arts Theatre and the Thanh
Hoa Tuong Troupe.

This festival which is organised by the Performing Arts
Department of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, provides an opportunity
for professional Tuong troupes to introduce and promote many plays and discuss
the preservation of traditional Tuong drama.

Sketches highlight
artists’ bravery during war

The club of war veterans on Tuesday unveiled an art
exhibition ‘revolution war and armed forces’ at the HCMC Museum of Fine Arts to
remember Reunification Day (April 30).

The show has 255 works including 167 sketches, 57 oil on
canvas paintings, seven ceramic works, five wooden carvings, seven lacquers and
others made of silk, paper powder, synthetic materials, bronze, water color and
paper. Works have been made about the resistance and soldiers’ dark memories.

The works are considered historical documents so that the
young generations can learn more about the nation’s fight for freedom. The
sketches are testament to the courage of the artists who had to take a risk to
record dangerous moments of the Vietnamese resistance war.

The exhibition, at 97
Pho Duc Chinh Street in District 1, runs until
April 30.

Forget the soaring
city heat and escape to green heaven

Nguyen Tuan Duc’s ‘Green Nature’ which opened at Tu Do
Gallery on Tuesday gave visitors an escape from the scorching city heat.

It features 21 oil on canvas artworks depicting stunning
landscapes across the country the artist has visited such as Nha Trang, Dalat,
Danang, Binh Thuan and An Giang.

The artist also displays cramped alleyways or old streets in
HCMC where he was born and bred.

Duc, who graduated from HCMC Fine Arts College, said:
“Nature always gives people inspiration to appreciate art, feelings of peace
and tranquility. I just want to keep those emotions alive and that is why
paintings were born.”

The show runs until May 16 at the gallery on 53 Ho Tung Mau Street
in HCMC’s District 1.

Photographer Pham
Cong Thang’s ‘Moments’ on display

An art photo exhibition ‘Moment’ by Pham Cong Thang opens at
the Information and Exhibition House in Hanoi
on Saturday.

With 30 years of experience as a professional photographer,
Thang has filtered and recorded moments, states, emotions, tones of nature and
people in his shots. Works on display will be arranged in many themes including
landscapes, human portraits, and animals via children’s eyes.

The show also features the work ‘Nguoi choi dan ghi ta’ (The
man plays guitar) which won the prize Grand Concours International in France and the photo ‘Thanh Than’ (Carefree) won
gold medal at the international photograph contest held in Sri Lanka.

The exhibition at 45
Trang Tien Street runs to April 29.

Fava’s Black blood
will open in Hanoi

An oil painting exhibition called “Black Blood” by French
artist Pierre Fava will open on Thursday at L’Espace in Hanoi.

His paintings are regarded as both violent and gentle. With
Fava, monochrome is the expression of the purity of materials, the way to bring
mildness and subtlety to forms.

Fava uses black as the main color for his monochrome
paintings because of his passion for this color and its symbol which is close
to his spiritual mood.

The exhibition, at the French Culture Institute, 24 Trang Tien Street,
runs until May 17.

Ukrainian pianist to
raise cash for deaf kids

Ukrainian Igor Chystokletov will perform at the
Conservatory’s Music Concert Hall on Friday at 8 p.m. to raise money for
children with hearing deficiencies.

The program named “Sound and voice for hearing-impaired
children,” organized by the HCMC Sponsoring Association for Poor Patients, will
also feature performances by Vietnamese artists such as Pham Hong Anh, Nguyen
Do My Quyen, and Vo Ngoc Dieu Tinh at 112 Nguyen Du Street in District 1.

Artists will perform piano works of classical musicians such
as Mozart, Brahms, Tchaikovsy, Dvorak, Rachmaninov, Gershwin, Arensky and
Chabrier. Chystokletov, who has lived in HCMC for more than 10 years, obtained
a master of music degree from the Odessa Conservatory in 1994. He taught piano
at HCMC Conservatory of Music until 1999.

PV