Music, poetry, and painting blended together to create the artistic world of Trịnh Công Sơn. Was he a songwriter who wrote wonderful lyrics, "as easily as taking words out of a pocket" (as musician Nguyễn Xuân Khoát observed), or was he a talented poet who also excelled at composing music? It's impossible to distinguish. He was both. And those two personalities found each other in his paintings.

Diem - a watercolor painting by Trinh Cong Son, painted in 1963.

When sound fails, color speaks.

The poetry of Trịnh Công Sơn, that is, the lyrics of his more than 600 songs, are deeply imbued with a painterly mindset. Just hearing the titles: "Pink Rain," "White Summer," "Glass Sunlight"... evokes images of paintings. Just hearing "her slender shoulders, like a heron flying to a distant land" conjures up a picture of a young woman "like a heron in flight." That slender, delicate figure was once the model of beauty for Huế women and reigned supreme in art for a long time.

But there are times when music and poetry can no longer find their voice. Anyone who creates art will understand this helplessness. “There are many things I can only paint, not express through music. At those times, I have to use my brush, paint, and canvas… When language and sound fail, color speaks to comfort and soothe me,” Trịnh Công Sơn confided about his painting.

Trinh's elegant signature features a fish-shaped seal in the lower right corner.

A mind full of aesthetic sense and creativity.

In fact, painting was present in his being and accompanied his music from his early youth. Just by looking at the free-flowing, fantasy-style handwriting "in the style of Trinh Cong Son" on his sheet music or unfinished writings, just by looking at the spontaneous patterns on the letters he sent to Dao Anh and friends, the scribbles on scraps of paper, cigarette packs... one can see the talent of an artist. It was "a mind full of aesthetic sense and creativity," as remarked by painter Dinh Cuong, his close friend from his youth in Hue.

Most impressive was Trịnh Công Sơn's signature, as beautiful as a work of calligraphy. Đinh Cường recounted that Sơn had many beautiful signatures, but he chose the one with the long horizontal line at the top. "Why didn't you add a fish?" (The fish is the Western zodiac animal for those born in 1939, Trịnh Công Sơn's birth year). So Sơn drew a circle with his pen, creating a fish in the lower right corner of the signature, just like his seal. "You should become an artist!" Đinh Cường said.

But music chose Son. And he chose music, melodies and lyrics to convey his thoughts, philosophy, and emotions about love, homeland, and the human condition. He became a leading musician in the anti-war movement and the struggle for peace. He is also considered "the best love song writer of the century," as shared by musician Thanh Tung...

Trinh's last self-portrait, from 2000, is featured in the April 2019 issue of the TCS picture calendar.

Artist Trinh Cong Son

Then one day, posters advertising art exhibitions by Trinh Cong Son, along with those of renowned artists such as Dinh Cuong, Do Quang Em, Buu Chi, Trinh Cung, Ton That Van, etc., appeared on the streets of Saigon throughout the years 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 2000... He experimented with various mediums, from pen and ink to pastel, acrylic, watercolor, and oil paint... "He's only been painting for a few years, but he's already become a true artist," commented artist Nguyen Trung during Trinh Cong Son's joint exhibition with Dinh Cuong and Do Quang Em in January 1989.

“The case of Trinh Cong Son remains special, even though his public exhibitions of his paintings are no longer surprising. A few years ago, I was truly surprised and amazed by a portrait he painted of his artist friend wearing a beret, holding a pipe in his mouth, with a bushy beard, all shimmering in a strange metallic silver hue, revealing an extremely high level of skill. It is one of the most beautiful paintings among all the artists I admire,” art critic Huynh Huu Uy commented in 2008.

“Art taught me about the boundaries of finitude and infinity. In painting, in particular, I encountered the boundless nature of a dream of spiritual freedom.” Painter Dinh Cuong considers Trinh Cong Son's statement as an artistic manifesto.

In the spring of 2019, the public saw for the first time a complete collection of paintings by artist Trinh Cong Son on calendar pages. That calendar is still kept by many as a precious artifact related to Trinh. In 2021, commemorating the 20th anniversary of Trinh Cong Son's passing, a book titled "Trinh Cong Son's Paintings," featuring 100 paintings and other artworks, was planned to be released along with a Trinh Cong Son art exhibition, but the pandemic prevented its completion. The book is now finished and will be released to the public in early April 2026, coinciding with the 25th anniversary of his death.

“I searched for myself in music and poetry. I still hadn't found enough of my own face. And I tried to turn to painting, continuing on my journey to rediscover myself... There were days when I withdrew into a silent, wordless realm to try to see myself more clearly, but in vain. And I turned to the world of silence and painting. There, I encountered a part of my life that had been hidden for so long” - Trinh Cong Son.

Minh Tu

Source: https://huengaynay.vn/van-hoa-nghe-thuat/cuoc-choi-sac-mau-cua-trinh-cong-son-164040.html