Nguyen Tien Chung (1914-1976)
PLEASE CONTACT US IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BUY OR SELL A PAINTING BY NGUYEN TIEN CHUNG.
Nguyen Tien Chung, a Vietnamese modern artist, was born in the Ulele village, Thanh Oai district of Hanoi on August 8th, 1914. During his artistic career he worked in lacquer—including folding screens—and also painted on silk. Chung also made woodblock prints and carvings.
A passionate artist from an early age, in elementary school he made pictures of plants and grasses to illustrate his teacher’s lecture. At home, he dreamt about using the supplies of a real artist: canvas, brushes and oil paints. With no money to buy such supplies he used lime mixed with gelatin to make color and made bamboo ink pens. His early images of country scenes demonstrated his talent, and his teachers encouraged him to apply to the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts d’Indochine (College of Fine Arts of Vietnam), which he entered in 1936.
While studying both traditional lacquer techniques and European methods, Chung found himself most attracted to traditional and rural Vietnamese subjects and scenes. Among his favored subjects were temples, pagodas and folk sculptures. As he developed his ideas about a Vietnamese “national art” he graduated from the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in 1940, then worked quietly through the war years. In the years from 1947 to 1953 he served the Minh resistance movement.
In 1946 he won two prizes at an August Art Exhibition with two paintings on silk “Bodhi Tree and Brush Head.” In the 1950s he continued his engagement with rural subjects, as in the image “Cho Nhong,” which depicts peasant farmers harvesting crops in a charming, poetic style.
He wrote this about his affection for the Vietnamese countryside and its scenery:
Rural subjects have attracted me. Every year, along with students on summer holidays, we go to the countryside all day outdoors, in the field, I stand with my skin sunburned to record industrious people, dewy sunshine, peaceful scenery and wilderness. I record every single movement: the posture of the farmer harvesting, oxen pulling their plows through plowed fields that look like velvet rugs…
Chung’s work—although it did briefly include political propaganda and newspaper illustrations—was most often sweet and sentimental. His farmers were athletic, his women slender, his scenery idyllic and lovingly colored. At its best, Chung’s art transmitted a national essence and maintains a connection to folk art roots.
Nearly four decades after Chung’s death—on March 5th, 1976 at the age of 62—the Vietnam Fine Arts Association celebrated his 100th birthday, inviting many of his friends, family members and other artists to participate. At the ceremony, Tran Khanh Coung, the President of the Vietnam Fine Arts Association offered this tribute:
The paintings of Nguyen Tien Chung have contributed by reflecting the beauty of this country and the human life of Vietnam in the two holy resistance wars of the nation. To make a good composition, Nguyen Tien Chung drew many sketches during his field trips. Many people still remember him preparing his paintings in a rural area of Shanxi province, showing the many people, the many clothes, the hats and leaves and all of the other activities of a typical market in the North Delta
A passionate artist from an early age, in elementary school he made pictures of plants and grasses to illustrate his teacher’s lecture. At home, he dreamt about using the supplies of a real artist: canvas, brushes and oil paints. With no money to buy such supplies he used lime mixed with gelatin to make color and made bamboo ink pens. His early images of country scenes demonstrated his talent, and his teachers encouraged him to apply to the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts d’Indochine (College of Fine Arts of Vietnam), which he entered in 1936.
While studying both traditional lacquer techniques and European methods, Chung found himself most attracted to traditional and rural Vietnamese subjects and scenes. Among his favored subjects were temples, pagodas and folk sculptures. As he developed his ideas about a Vietnamese “national art” he graduated from the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in 1940, then worked quietly through the war years. In the years from 1947 to 1953 he served the Minh resistance movement.
In 1946 he won two prizes at an August Art Exhibition with two paintings on silk “Bodhi Tree and Brush Head.” In the 1950s he continued his engagement with rural subjects, as in the image “Cho Nhong,” which depicts peasant farmers harvesting crops in a charming, poetic style.
He wrote this about his affection for the Vietnamese countryside and its scenery:
Rural subjects have attracted me. Every year, along with students on summer holidays, we go to the countryside all day outdoors, in the field, I stand with my skin sunburned to record industrious people, dewy sunshine, peaceful scenery and wilderness. I record every single movement: the posture of the farmer harvesting, oxen pulling their plows through plowed fields that look like velvet rugs…
Chung’s work—although it did briefly include political propaganda and newspaper illustrations—was most often sweet and sentimental. His farmers were athletic, his women slender, his scenery idyllic and lovingly colored. At its best, Chung’s art transmitted a national essence and maintains a connection to folk art roots.
Nearly four decades after Chung’s death—on March 5th, 1976 at the age of 62—the Vietnam Fine Arts Association celebrated his 100th birthday, inviting many of his friends, family members and other artists to participate. At the ceremony, Tran Khanh Coung, the President of the Vietnam Fine Arts Association offered this tribute:
The paintings of Nguyen Tien Chung have contributed by reflecting the beauty of this country and the human life of Vietnam in the two holy resistance wars of the nation. To make a good composition, Nguyen Tien Chung drew many sketches during his field trips. Many people still remember him preparing his paintings in a rural area of Shanxi province, showing the many people, the many clothes, the hats and leaves and all of the other activities of a typical market in the North Delta