Paintings full of identity by Tran Le Nam

At the age of over 60, Tran Le Nam - a Southwestern border soldier holding a paintbrush - has just launched his first solo exhibition of paintings full of identity in strong brushstrokes and color blocks.

Painter Tran Le Nam has been "faithful" to abstract paintings for 20 years, and has just opened his first solo exhibition - Photo: T.DIEU

Titled Going from the inside out, Tran Le Nam's exhibition is taking place at Art Space, Vietnam University of Fine Arts ( Hanoi ), bringing special emotions, with abstract paintings exposing the private feelings of people who have experienced many life situations.

Tran Le Nam: From the battlefield to find painting

Tran Le Nam's painting path through what he shared with Tuoi Tre Online shows that he is a passionate and steadfast artist.

Tran Le Nam was born in 1962, in a military family, and grew up in a "military zone" in Hanoi. Although he was the son of a martyr, when he grew up, he asked to join the army to fight in the Southwestern front in the early 1980s.

After being discharged from the army after 4 years of fighting in Cambodia, returning to Hanoi, the weather-beaten soldier wanted to return to his childhood passion for drawing.

He attended evening mass art classes at the old Kim Mon theater (88 Hang Buom today), studying with painter Pham Viet Song - the teacher of many generations of painters.

Recognized by strict teachers for his solid drawing techniques, but unfortunately, he remembered the wrong exam schedule and had to put aside his art dream, Yet Kieu.

In the early years of renovation, the country was still facing many difficulties, so Tran Le Nam had to put aside his passion for drawing to make a living.

Those years did not bring him much money but gave him the opportunity to hone his aesthetic eye. One day, his artistic emotions were full, Tran Le Nam picked up his brush to paint again, like an "order from the heart" that could not be refused.

Artist Tran Le Nam often paints large-scale paintings with very thick layers of color - Photo: T.DIEU

Art is the voice of human condition

He returned to his old home in Hanoi, started with realistic paintings, then gradually moved to semi-abstract. During that period (around the late 1990s, early 2000s), he   every painting sold out

But he continued to search for a style that suited his temperament and his own aesthetic views. And he found abstract painting.

Drawing from his rich life experiences, in 2005 Tran Le Nam presented his first abstract paintings in a group exhibition (Exit Group). And this time it is Going from the inside out, displaying dozens of paintings he painted from 2018 to present.

Exhibition space Going from inside out by Tran Le Nam - Photo: T.DIEU

According to art researcher Vu Huy Thong (Vietnam University of Fine Arts), the paintings show two distinct periods and trends of practice. From 2018 to 2022, the works are shaped by large strokes and directions of movement formed on the surface of the painting.

From 2022 to 2025 are paintings with thick surfaces like bas-reliefs, mixed with many "mute" colors; thick layers of solid color overlap the thin layer of bright color below, creating depth of space, especially when light shines in. That depth is also the depth of the human mind, the torments, frustrations and aspirations that burst forth.

A work in the exhibition of Tran Le Nam

When painting, Tran Le Nam chose to emphasize the rough, natural, and strong beauty, and emphasized the generality over the details. That created the free spirit of his true soldier and "street guy" nature.

Thanks to that, the emotional paintings depicting "repression", "cracking", "holding on", "escape" (names of the series of works exhibited by Tran Le Nam) are not heavy or lingering. They only gently whisper about "fate".

He told Tuoi Tre Online : "In the end, art is just a story about the human condition." He named the exhibition Going from the inside out to imply that "art must present the core essence hidden under the outer shell of material reality."

BIRD OF PARADISE

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nhung-buc-tranh-day-tinh-than-phan-cua-tran-le-nam-20251011105359376.htm