At the first World Culture Festival in Hanoi held in early October, the painting “Ancient Cheo Rhythm and Kites on the Golden Field” by artist Ngo Ba Hoang was auctioned at the highest price. It was also from this painting that many people learned about his world of Vietnamese paintings.
Painter Ngo Ba Hoang graduated from the Hanoi University of Industrial Fine Arts and is currently the Head of the school's Monumental Painting Department. He has spent more than two decades creating and teaching, tirelessly searching for Vietnamese identity in the language of painting.
The project "Hello Vietnam - My Homeland" includes 63 continuous paintings over 300 meters long, carried out by him and his colleagues in 2024-2025, and is a special milestone.
The series of paintings is like a long poem in painting, recreating the S-shaped strip of land from Lung Cu to Ca Mau Cape - where culture, people and nature blend together.
Among them, the painting “Ancient Cheo melody and kite flute sound on the golden field” that was just auctioned above is a work that evokes the beauty of Northern folk culture with ancient communal house roofs, festival drum sounds and peaceful countryside scenery.
Previously, in 2020, the artist created the painting "Vietnam - Brocade Mountains and Rivers" (3.3m high, 12m long), currently on display at the headquarters of Geleximco Group. This work also created the basis for documents and inspiration for the creation of this set of 63 paintings.
Besides the grandiose paintings, oil paintings are the world where Ngo Ba Hoang expresses contemplation and tranquility.
Oil paint is where he conveys his feelings about Vietnamese women in their traditional beauty. In the painting “Happiness” (2001), the image of a young mother holding her child against a warm light background brings a sense of peace, like the breath of a traditional Vietnamese home.
Meanwhile, “Silently Wearing a Peach Dress” (2006) has a different tone – calm, profound and full of inner light. The woman in the painting just sits quietly next to a small lime pot, but her eyes and the light in the painting make the viewer feel a very Vietnamese silence – both fragile and full of vitality.
In addition to painting, artist Ngo Ba Hoang also sought his artistic personality in ceramic art. That is where he found another journey - where fire became a companion in creativity. The ceramic works are painted with colored glazes, using a painting technique combining many precious glazes. The works are the result of a period of passionate research and experimentation. There, the lotus is both a symbol and a bridge leading the viewer into the inner world, connecting with the deep layers of national culture.
The artist said that he has experienced creating through many types of ceramics: from red clay ceramics with geometric shapes in the language of ceramic sculpture to white ceramics painted with glaze... and in recent years, he has especially loved and focused on researching and creating in the direction of bringing special glazes into the palette of painting on white ceramic background.
Ngo Ba Hoang began experimenting with combining painting techniques into ceramics, such as the multi-layered painting technique of classical oil paintings, the grinding and gilding techniques of traditional Vietnamese lacquer paintings... combined with the spontaneous flow of ceramic glaze.
Works such as “Mother and Child” (2025) or “Autumn” (2025) carry the beauty of earth, fire and glaze, while retaining the softness of the painting lines. Images of women, children and white lotus appear in many of his works, becoming symbols of purity, compassion, love and innocence.
Ngo Ba Hoang does not consider art as just technical expression, but as a journey to find peace of mind.
He once shared: "Painting, for me, is a way to keep my heart at peace and a journey to find my inner self."
Therefore, in his world, every image - whether it is a mother, a lotus flower, or a village scene - carries a spirit of kindness, containing positive energy and gratitude for life. Someone commented that the paintings of artist Ngo Ba Hoang carry a strong healing spirit in them.
His paintings are not noisy, not dramatic, but enough to make the viewer stop. It is simple, sincere - a rare emotion in contemporary art, where beauty does not come from ostentation but from the depth of the soul. The colors in the paintings are also very gentle, soft, without harsh shades, inverted tones that create strong feelings.
In the world of Vietnamese painting today, Ngo Ba Hoang is a quiet but persistent voice - one who uses lines, light and fire to tell stories about the Vietnamese people. Among them are the images of his mother, his homeland, and himself - the pieces that make up the "beauty of the Vietnamese soul" in the new era.
Source: https://nhandan.vn/hanh-trinh-hoi-hoa-ve-ve-ve-dep-dat-nuoc-con-nguoi-viet-nam-trong-tranh-ngo-ba-hoang-post916395.html
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