Nguyen Minh Thanh, preparing his next trip to London, is presenting his last paintings (“Silence”) at Art Vietnam Gallery from September 17th until October 11th (30 Hang Than Hanoi).

Last paintings, supposedly so as they are dated 2003. The problem is that they can identically be dated 2000 or 1997. Again, the same self-portraits, face / profile, eyes candidly open / eyes closed, vegetal references, long coat draping… A little bit weaker than before maybe, this being the only noticeable difference. Hence in some portraits the face features are not that good. One can notably note that in some cases the nose is getting longer. Probably, the Pinocchio’s complex. Thanh proves to be a gifted liar, a charming liar, but still a liar. “Silence”, he says: but the painting displayed are talkative and noisy. The repeated speech is obvious: meditation and retreat from common life – retreat being a very fashionable trend this season in the Vietnamese artistic community – the word, not the life style as business has to go on as usual. Beauty and essence of life are inside you but modern life does not allow us to realise it. After Thanh coming with these breaking news, we can no longer pretend that we are not aware of such valuable innovative concepts. All the series is mixed with this definite buddhist sauce. A “cordon-bleu work” ready to serve to foreign amateurs with Third World Avant Garde appetite. Soon at Bobby Chinn, the fine restaurant on Hoang Kiem where Thanh’s works are regularly presented among pan-fried tunas with mashed potatoes and Mediterranean appetizers. This buddhist tendency is somewhat funny in a country where buddhism, as an everyday religious practice, is far from being as obvious as in other part of Asia. Yet, looking at galleries in Hanoi it seems that this trend has now replaced the former pathetic ethnic minority prevailing reference. One other example in an another artistic category : we can notice the same buddhist touch in Hong Viet Dung terrible series of boys/girls handling either a bird or a lotus flower – to be seen in every single gallery of Hanoi. Yet, this marketing approach is successful and the buddhist added flavor ensures up to now constant sales within, in the case of Dung, an expat community eager to decorate living rooms or, in the case of Thanh, the institutional/intellectual circles looking for works with a message – but still not too difficult to understand, please. I mentioned that these two artists are not in the same category as Dung has given up, for long and very openly, any artistic ambition to concentrate successfully on making money and renovate colonial houses. Yet, one has to admit that these two artists are finally not standing that far from one another today. And in the case of Thanh (who is only one example among what was once considered as a promising artistic generation), it is a real disappointment as Thanh is no doubt talented and intelligent. The Art Vietnam Gallery has done again an excellent work. Self-called “the Premier Gallery for Vietnamese Art ” sic, it is surely one of the most professional and nicest galleries in Vietnam – as elegant as its owner, Mrs Suzanne Lecht, who devotes a lot of efforts and public relations to promote her artists – with now strong established references such as “Presidential visit 2000 with President Clinton and family in Hanoi”. Yet, it is also a gallery duty to tell artists (as they name themselves) when they are going nowhere.

Silence is a precious word and Thanh having not a lot to say should have sticked strictly to the word. After notably being swallowed by a whale and other painful experiences, Pinocchio decided to stop lying and changed dramatically from a puppet to a human being. One has to hope that Thanh will soon meet his whale to become the artist he should be. May be in London – even if I have never seen real positive impact on such residence stay abroad. Anyway, Thanh will surely have time to come across Bacon’s fights and screams and will understand that such screams are far more close to silence than his Hanoian meditative gossips.

25/09/03

© 2003 talawas