Vietnamese women in the Tú Duyên printmaking
Around 1942, artist Tú Duyên discovered the technique of hand-printing on silk and applied it to create many valuable works throughout his artistic career. To this day, his hand-printed paintings continue to attract the attention of art enthusiasts and have become an indelible mark of modern Vietnamese art. He particularly favored works inspired by the beauty of Vietnamese women.
Pink Lotus 1 (1991) and Early Morning Sunflower (1999)
The "Ancient Fragrance Branches" exhibition (currently running at Annam Gallery, Ho Chi Minh City until March 31st), featuring 18 works by the late artist Tú Duyên, evokes a gentle and poetic atmosphere, with the aesthetic subject being graceful Vietnamese women in traditional ao dai dresses surrounded by flowers and traditional musical instruments.
The paintings in the exhibition depict flowers from various perspectives. There are the delicate pink lotus buds reaching out, waiting to bloom in the lotus pond in "Pink Lotus 1 ," the resilient and strong sunflowers swaying in the wind in "Morning Sunflower" and "Sunflower Against the Wind ," or the work "Lilies and Buddha" with fresh, gentle lily branches placed next to a serene and majestic Buddha statue.
The Trumpet and the Buddha (1999)
These flowers also serve as metaphors for the beauty, elegance, gentleness, and grace of women, as artist Tú Duyên skillfully pairs the image of flowers with beautiful Vietnamese women in graceful ao dai dresses. In various scenes, they seem to immerse themselves in the melodies and tunes of the past, played on traditional Vietnamese musical instruments such as the zither, moon lute, or pipa.
Looking at each of the hand-printed silk paintings by artist Tú Duyên, where colors are mixed and arranged by hand, one feels as if they are enjoying a poem or a piece of music with delicate brushstrokes, soft and gentle language, and harmonious colors. That is why this masterful hand-printing technique, created over 80 years ago, still has the power to move the mind, immersing viewers in the unique artistic world of this silk painting master.
Improvements to woodblock printing
Handprint art is a type of woodblock printing adapted from woodblock prints. Deeply devoted to Vietnamese folk woodblock printing, artist Tú Duyên persistently pursued and devoted considerable effort to researching this art form. In addition, he studied Japanese and Chinese printmaking art for many years. By 1942, he successfully developed his own improved woodblock printing technique, which he named "handprint painting." To this day, this skill remains a rare experiment for artists in their creative work.
Girl Passing by the Pavilion (1992) and Girl Behind the Curtain (circa 1965)
As artist Uyên Huy once observed, while both are woodblock prints, a comparison of hand-printed woodblock prints with two other types of Vietnamese folk paintings, Đông Hồ and Hàng Trống, reveals clear differences. While Đông Hồ paintings require a separate print (positive plate) for each color and require overlapping prints for color blending, and Hàng Trống paintings require the use of a brush to add shading after each draft print, Tú Duyên's woodblock prints use only two plates: a recessed negative plate with deep lines to create the background, and a raised positive plate to create the shading for each line of the painting.
Notably, unlike other silk-printing artists who use rollers, artist Tú Duyên uses his fingertips and palms to mix the colors. He then places the silk on the canvas, rubbing, pressing, stroking, and tapping to distribute the colors as intended. Because of this manual color distribution method, his paintings evoke a unique sense of fluidity, with colors transitioning from dark to light and vice versa, exuding an elegance and freedom that is difficult to achieve with a brush.
Applying this masterful technique, artist Tú Duyên creates paintings on various themes, with three main themes standing out: historical figures, notably the painting "Better to be a ghost in Vietnam," inspired by the national hero Trần Bình Trọng; themes drawn from folk songs, ballads, and literary works such as Kim Vân Kiều and Chinh Phụ Ngâm ; and inspiration from the beauty of Vietnamese women, as seen in works like "Girl Behind the Curtain" and "Girl Passing by the Pavilion ."
Artist Tú Duyên (1915 – 2012, real name Nguyễn Văn Duyến) was born into a scholarly family in the ancient village of Bát Tràng, now part of Gia Lâm district, Hanoi . From 1935 to 1938, he passed the entrance exam and attended the preparatory class at the Indochina Fine Arts School. In 1939, he and his family moved to Saigon and worked as a silk painter and illustrator for newspapers. In 1942, he invented the technique of handprint painting.
Thanks to his significant contributions to this technical field, the late artist Tú Duyên left a profound mark on Vietnamese art, admired by generations of young artists. He was awarded a medal by the Vietnam Fine Arts Association in 1997; and received the Medal for the Cause of Vietnamese Literature and Arts from the Vietnam Union of Literature and Arts Associations in 1999. Currently, his works are preserved at the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum, the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Museum, and many art museums around the world, as well as in numerous private collections both domestically and internationally.
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