Works written and drawn amid the fire of war

• CREATIONS FOR THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE

“Cuu Long Giang Khoi Lua - Sketches and Poems” is an art book, including sketches, watercolors, poems and letters by artists - soldiers created right in the middle of the battlefield during the resistance war against America. The book was compiled by Sherry Buchanan and Nam Anandaroopa Nguyen, translated into Vietnamese by Phan Thanh Hao.

Amidst fierce bombs and bullets, in the basements and in the barracks, art classes of the Central Office for Southern Vietnam in the middle of the old forests of Ca Mau, Tay Ninh, Dong Thap Muoi... were opened. War artists were present in the cultural soldiers supporting the Southern battlefield from the early days. They were Huynh Phuong Dong, Le Lam, Nguyen Van Tru, Nguyen Thanh Chau... From Hanoi, they crossed Truong Son to the South along the Ho Chi Minh trail. Artist Huynh Phuong Dong shared: "As an artist, I went to the battlefield to record the pain caused by war. My paintings record history through painting".

Composed during the war, under the rain of bombs and bullets, in dark bunkers, when enemy tanks were only a few meters away, each work of art is also a historical record in pictures. But not only that, the artists have recorded the real images of soldiers' lives, the rear and the battlefield landscapes of the South from Tay Ninh, Ben Tre to Ca Mau during the period 1964 - 1975.

The lyrical images of soldiers, children, mothers, mountains, tunnels, and villages appear amidst the fire and bullets, expressing love for their homeland, courage, and desire for peace. In the midst of war, they still “firmly believe in beauty and life,” as artist Pham Thanh Tam said.

They captured vivid moments, filled with love and faith in humanity. The artists passionately painted portraits of everything from young couriers, soldiers to local guerrillas to sculpt the faces of heroic Vietnamese soldiers in battle.

The book also introduces poems by Nguyen Duy and Le Anh Xuan, representative of resistance literature, such as the poem “Vietnam’s Posture” praising the sacrifices of the liberation army soldiers. The poems are interspersed with moving memoirs, diaries, and letters sent from the battlefield.

• FROM ADMIRING TO PRESERVING AND INTRODUCING: THE JOURNEY OF TWO INTERNATIONAL AUTHORS

Learning about Vietnamese resistance art through the painting “Girl, Guns and Flowers” ​​by Tran Trung Tin, and then accidentally admiring the painting “Crossing the Ba Thac River”, American journalist and curator Sherry Buchanan was so moved that she decided to embark on a journey to learn, collect and introduce to the world Vietnamese war art works. “Cuu Long Giang Khoi Lua - Sketches and Poems” is a result of that artistic journey. Together with Nam Anandaroopa Nguyen - a Vietnamese-American art researcher, Sherry traveled throughout Vietnam for nearly two decades (1998 - 2015), interviewing dozens of war artists, collecting sketches, watercolors and unpublished documents.

“Cuu Long Giang Khoi Lua - Sketches and Poems” is a valuable source of material that helps the younger generation better understand the resistance war from an emotional, humane, and richly visual perspective. In terms of art, this is a unique visual heritage, recreating through lines and colors a tragic chapter of Vietnamese history. Turning each page of the book written and drawn from the sorrows and losses, from the heroic and fierce days, we are more proud of the Vietnamese people, a heroic and indomitable nation, who have loved beauty since the time “When Nguyen Trai wrote poetry and fought the enemy. Nguyen Du wrote Kieu, the country became literature” (Che Lan Vien).

Source: https://baolamdong.vn/van-hoa-nghe-thuat/202505/nhung-tac-pham-viet-va-ve-giua-lua-dan-chien-tranh-38a0b4f/