Reflecting on Le Trong Nghia's "Thinking Eyes"

VHO - Le Trong Nghia is an architect from Quy Nhon, a region steeped in Cham culture with its famous tower architecture. Therefore, his entry into the architectural profession was a perfect combination of "favorable timing and location"? Poet Yen Lan of the "School of Chaotic Poetry" group also hails from An Nhon, Binh Dinh. Remembering Nghia, I recall a few lines of poetry by Yen Lan: "A small, desolate town / The sun sleeps in the afternoon / turning over on the thatched roof…"

Nghia's temperament is always subdued during gatherings with friends, reserved yet warm and genuine. He only truly explodes after consuming a considerable amount of alcohol. Then he plays music and sings with overflowing energy. Nghia is full of energy, a positive energy for creativity and joyful companionship, not the kind of energy that surges with frivolous displays.

Nghia creates sculptures with unique and unusual shapes. He designs book covers and illustrations. He writes poetry to hone his language skills and to use it for songwriting; he doesn't aspire to become a poet, nor does he publish a separate collection, even though his poems date back to his innocent school days. He sets his own and his friends' poems to music.

Sculptor Le Trong Nghia

Nghia's music, with its literary lyrics, is lyrical, evoking the sounds of the vast ocean waves and the gentle breezes of the mountains. It's no exaggeration, and no one would disagree, that Nghia is a multi-talented individual. Nghia cherishes sincerity and the profound spirit of the people of Central Vietnam, with their warm sunshine and strong winds. Whenever he travels to Hanoi for exhibitions, Nghia never forgets to visit his friends, especially the senior artists he respects and admires…

And then recently, Nghia published his own book after sporadically posting on his personal page heartfelt, educated, and sincere opinions about art. Reading Nghia's arguments and critiques, one doesn't see a triumphant ego or self-aggrandizement, only the ego of someone knowledgeable and insightful… wanting to contribute sincere and reasonable voices to the arts community.

Le Trong Nghia wrote the book "Eyes That Think " on visual art, published by the Fine Arts Publishing House, and he himself designed the cover for his brainchild. "Eyes That Think " was born in a way that, as he revealed, "moved beyond academic theories of visual art" to get closer to the public. He deciphers artistic phenomena, bringing them back to their essence with the associations and reflections of someone with over 30 years of artistic practice and teaching experience.

He unravels the artistic mysteries of Venus statues, frescoes and rock carvings from 12,000 to 4,000 years ago, ancient Roman cities… to Cham statues, Dong Son bronze drums… He traces back to the roots of art; seeking connections between the Venus statue by an anonymous artist and those of Picasso, Matisse… all of whom dared to break free from conventions, delve into the essence, and shatter norms to unleash their instincts… He contemplates the world while not forgetting his Cham homeland; he thinks about art and expands on its relationship with philosophy…

This book discusses art but avoids being overly complex or confusing. It clearly tells stories with information, images, and data to guide the reader to knowledge. Transforming complexity into simplicity is a writing style favored by those who value wisdom. The material is valuable, the knowledge vast, yet it avoids unnecessary embellishment or wordplay.

He reveals the most valuable details to clearly explain his comments and conclusions drawn from practical creative work. Detailed stories about specific works dispel what is called dull theory, leading readers to illuminate concepts in the vibrant reality of creative life, such as answering the question: What is Neoclassicism, and how is it present in works like it?...

Le Trong Nghia writes from the perspective of an artist, with an attitude of respect for artistic memory, which provides an unlimited source of inspiration for generations of artists to continue creating and innovating along the long journey from its origins. For Nghia, sculpture is not about describing reality but about returning to memory: “I carve into silence with the trembling rhythms of something yet to be named. Each cut is a memory. Each line is a recollection distorted by time. In these incomplete forms, I find myself, hazy but present.”

Nghia not only recounts stories of the past, but also puts his own story on paper so that readers can better understand the artist's feelings in the face of the vicissitudes of time and the eternity of memories anchored in the forms that our eyes have captured and preserved as an asset that is not easily lost. This is the story of his restoration of the Linga-Yoni idol inside the Twin Towers in Quy Nhon in 2008.

In " Thinking Eyes ," we open our senses to read, to contemplate, to feel, and to share the rhythm of art. Le Trong Nghia helps distinguish between a visual artist and an archaeologist. With the ancient characters embedded in the stone slabs, "thinking eyes" have different identifying characteristics: "A visual artist doesn't necessarily have to read the meaning of each line, but reads the traces, the rhythm, the empty and full spaces, and even the light and shadow as the characters are carved into the stone. Characters are visual music, a map of human memory…" And the sculptor from the Nẫu region calls them "Characters that breathe," and then, learning from Greece, also engages in dialogue with the past, but in a new breath.

Talking about East and West, ancient and modern, is actually talking about oneself. A dialogue with oneself and art. And that dialogue in the mind has gained many empathetic listeners. Readers have the opportunity to delve into the depths of the sculptures, of the layers of artistic "rock" that still live on through time: "On windless nights, I still refine something, not with my hands, but with my soul. A form rises from within, layers of emotion solidifying like stone, contracting like wood, outlining like breath. I don't name them, I only listen to the echoes when my mind touches them…"

In his quest to define beauty, Le Trong Nghia did not hesitate to express his thoughts when writing this book: "These are not just pages for art lovers, but for anyone who believes that, amidst the noise of the times, we still need beauty as a breath, a way of life."

Each piece of commentary, discussion, and debate can be considered a piece of prose due to its smooth, poetic writing style. Many sentences invite the reader to appreciate beauty, naturally, to be expressed in beautiful language. Consider these examples: “Memory does not sleep. It does not retreat completely into the past as we often think. It only transforms, leaving its original form to hide itself in the silent masses, in the sudden gaps of life. Sometimes we encounter memory emerging from a dream: A faceless figure, standing still in a forest without birdsong. Sometimes, memory silently appears like a meaningless curve drawn endlessly on a page, when a trembling hand hesitates in a moment of unnamed hesitation…”

What fascinated me about "Eyes Thinks" was not just the wealth of knowledge and valuable materials on visual art, but also the way it was depicted and sculpted using a language as beautiful as poetry. I would call Le Trong Nghia a writer of artistic reflections. He has brought his sculptures to the public, speaking through a different language: literature!

Source: https://baovanhoa.vn/xuat-ban/ngam-ve-mat-nghi-cua-le-trong-nghia-233232.html