Le Tri Dung – a portrait painted by a "horse"

Le Tri Dung – a portrait painted by a "horse"

His trusty steed is a Honda Future that has been with him for decades. His driving skills stem from his youth as a tank driver, always working in close combat with his crew. The tank roars but is very well-behaved in his hands. It's a perfect combination of man and vehicle. Being in a crew means you have to be proficient in everything: excellent driving, quick reloading, and precise gunner… because in reality, there are situations where there's a shortage of personnel. Later tanks had air conditioning, but the T54 tanks of that era were as hot as a furnace.

Artist Le Tri Dung.

Before joining the armored unit, he was an infantry soldier in the Quảng Trị battlefield during the 1972 war. Lê Trí Dũng was a soldier in unit 6971. This number is an abbreviation for the large-scale deployment on September 6, 1971, when the resistance war was at its most intense, a day when students and lecturers from universities put aside their pens and went to the front lines. Teachers and students alike carried AK rifles and wore the same private's insignia. Although he hadn't graduated from art school, Private Lê Trí Dũng became a teacher within the military. The propaganda department of the armored unit opened drawing classes for soldiers. His students enthusiastically practiced drawing while also preparing for battle. Then, the armored unit assigned him the task of being a photojournalist, so he traveled extensively and captured many images of officers and soldiers, many of which are displayed at the Tank and Armored Vehicle Museum.

After the country was reunified and he left the military, Le Tri Dung worked for Vietnam Photo News and then the National Fine Arts Workshop. In the mid-1980s, he realized he was nothing like a typical office worker with neatly trimmed hair, so he decided to become a freelance artist. From then on, he had to fend for himself. His artistic dreams had to give way to his immediate need to feed his stomach. The subsidy period was tough, so he had to do all sorts of jobs: graphic design, poster design, making dioramas, and illustration. And from then on, his hair started to grow long and wild.

His wife had the idea of ​​selling black bean sweet soup, a popular refreshing drink at the time. On opening day, two men from Dong Nai ate several cups and praised how delicious it was. They were very happy, but their happiness was short-lived. On the second day, a fierce storm raged, and no one came to the shop. The entire pot of sweet soup had to be taken home for the extended family to eat. That day, the whole family "swam" with the black bean sweet soup. The third day was the last day of their patience, and they closed the shop completely.

Since 1995, in his forties, Le Tri Dung taught drawing at the University of Fine Arts. For over a decade after that, he ran a reputable drawing exam preparation center for fine arts schools. He retired from teaching in 2010 due to his work with the Fine Arts Association. However, illustration remains a passion of his, and he has consistently drawn for over 30 years, particularly for the Police Arts and Literature magazine. Le Tri Dung draws quickly and is always ready to "rescue" articles in the middle of the night when the editorial office needs them, earning him the nickname "113" from his colleagues.

"The old horse herder," born in the year of the buffalo, not the horse, is utterly devoted to horses. His first drawing of a horse was almost 48 years ago. Le Tri Dung's interest in horses stems from the birth of his son in 1978, the year of the horse. A vague worry was that Le Tri Dung had served in a tank unit in the A Luoi region, heavily affected by Agent Orange during the war, leaving many children of armored soldiers with lasting effects. He also seemed to have difficulty conceiving, waiting several years before having a child. His son was born, fortunately with all his fingers and toes. Overjoyed, he drew a cute little pony with its legs spread apart. This is considered his first drawing of a horse, created with all his heart. His son, born in the year of the horse, later became the famous photographer Le Viet Khanh.

Another turning point occurred about 40 years ago. Truong Nhuan, a professor at the Hanoi University of Theatre and Film and a lover of horse paintings, brought two American friends to buy paintings. Seeing the Westerner admiring the painting "Tu Cong's Military Camp" depicting Tu Hai, Le Tri Dung was delighted that he knew so much about the Tale of Kieu. The Westerner said he knew nothing about the Tale of Kieu but wanted to buy the painting simply because he admired the horse. So, the painting was sold, along with Tu Hai.

In the West, the best horse painter was the 18th-century English artist George Stubbs. He had a deep understanding of horse anatomy, down to every bone, tendon, and mane. In China, Xu Beihong is also considered a "master of horse painting." This artist studied in Europe but did not forget Chinese brushwork. Xu's brushstrokes are full of spirit, worthy of the saying, "The intention reaches the brush, and the spirit gives birth to the horse."

"The 'Old Horse Herder' wasn't influenced by anyone, only discovering the renowned painter Xu Beihong after painting many horses. However, Le Tri Dung disregarded anatomy and ignored the realistic style of Chinese ink painting. A horse depicted realistically is either an animal or fit for a stew. Le Tri Dung's horses are purely from imagination, starting with the head, body, or mane. Many viewers believe his horses are divine because they are not governed by any laws of physics. Sacred horses never eat grass but feed on the moon and drink from the sun. His warhorses proudly toss their manes like heroes fulfilling their ambitions. Horses symbolize a life of greatness and the yearning for freedom. Le Tri Dung explains: 'My horses rarely stand or eat grass; they gallop,' combined with the yin-yang circle on the saddle and the colors of the painting to bring good fortune for the new year.'"

Critic Nguyen Quan commented: “It seems that Le Tri Dung paints horses as if it were a ritual, like meditating, quenching thirst, and running: his feet don't touch the ground, but his mind soars to the clouds. His horses want to cast aside the ordinary, hoping to catch up with the extraordinary, weightless, so that they become purely symbols. These “horses” always fly in the wind, amidst pine-bamboo, peach-plum, sun-moon, and other mysterious symbols... It seems the artist wields his brush like a swordsman striking a blade, like a drunkard in a drunken stupor, or perhaps the painter is simply hoping to reach those extraordinary realms... The horse here is a symbol of freedom, uniqueness, and recklessness, but also an offering, a dedication from the artist to the extraordinary; it carries sacrificial offerings instead of saddles, swords, and riders...”

It's rare to find paintings of horses with riders. Le Tri Dung simply explains that horses are essentially people. Of course, human figures still appear, most notably centaurs and women with horses. Women are often depicted nude in provocative poses. In these paintings, beauty blends the divine essence of heaven with the earthly fertility. Each time he wields his brush, when his will, spirit, and strength unite, a new "horse" is born, no two are alike. Poet Vu Quan Phuong gifted Le Tri Dung a poem titled "Horse Painting," which includes the lines: "A thousand horses rush past the tip of my brush / Before the ink dries, the journey is already long / Oh horse, the land of the world / The grass that nourishes you is still the grass of our own land."

While Lê Trí Dũng was busy mixing paints with one hand, he also wrote poetry and prose with the other. The verses of this "old horse groom" subtly hint at the image of a knight: "One man, one horse, one lonely sorrow / One red heart, one lingering affection / One old coat, an old moon / One old road, a battlefield." The verses express the feelings of a soldier, the mood of a lonely general. His work, "Pebbles Picked Along the Road," is a collection of 27 essays by Lê Trí Dũng, revealing pages of his life and fragments of his existence. His straightforward, honest nature, unaffected by false pretenses, leaves many readers with a sense of unease. The writings of this "old horse groom" are both satirical and fantastical, fictional, with ambiguous spaces between mortals and gods, demons, and ghosts.

For the past 40 years, horses have become a unique defining characteristic of Le Tri Dung's work. Conversely, thousands of mythical horses have emerged from his paintings, galloping through life, joining forces to paint a portrait of Le Tri Dung.

Le Tri Dung said that the most beautiful thing about a horse is its mane; without a mane, even the most magnificent horse is as ordinary as a cow. He also said that a goat would possess a majestic aura if it were adorned with a mane. As he put pen to paper, he recited his own poem: “Horses run long distances / Birds fly against the wind / Dewdrops in the morning / The dawn breaks in a red hue.”

Source: https://cand.com.vn/Chuyen-dong-van-hoa/le-tri-dung--buc-chan-dung-do-ngua-ve-i796655/