Rung's New Wander
by Nguyen Trung
Source: Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts magazine, page 39
It is a colorful wander leading to a terra incognita that insiders call "A Reverie – Light and Dark."
The earlier wanders, which still exist in everyone's mind, were trips full of desire and despair. They were a world of women, chaos, and worldly lust that he hesitated to set foot in. The hurriedly drawn figures, which were sometimes rude, provide an impressive symbol, but most of them were merely the memories of the past.
This wander is quite different. It is something full of strong yet calm emotions - very well-selected artistic feelings. Thirty six oil paintings he exhibited last August led viewers to an unexpected world full of reverie colors, a far-off native land of subconsciousness, and a forgotten land of dreams. All of the contrary elements - the curved lines combined with straight ones, the circles with squares, the bright colors with dark ones - made up a new harmony in his works. We can feel mundane desires juxtaposed with the poetic charm of the land of dreams. From a rhythm that is full of absurd things in his dreamlike wander - the contrast of dark and light, red and black, good and evil - he leads us to an alien world filled with powerful imagination and inspiration.
It looks as if he creates a completely different genre of art using a new medium and materials, although his techniques are largely those of traditional lacquer paintings. For Rung, "a rich supply of reverie" is the worthiest thing to say. And making the best use of techniques is also the worthiest thing to say.