NGUYEN SI TUAN‘ S IDEA
After graduated from
My art knowledge have not passed Super realism of Salvador Dali yet, and I often wonder what the world art painting are, how they are doing and they are a bit better than me or they are doing like me. Although, at that time my paintings have sold a lot, but I always recognize that I am imitating the West Art gropingly with my backward art knowledge. I completely don’t understand what and how the world art painting are, but I know that I am looking into the life and painting the real society through the eye of the west famous artists, that is not my true look. Sometimes, I got some art books that my friends have brought for me from oversea, but I can not understand modern art clearly.
At the year 1994, when Vietnamese Government starts opening, we can research on internet , and more easily contact to foreign culture. At once, I know that I am far behind from the world art. The Russian Realism Art have driven me back up to many decades. Even seeing the world paintings, I don’t know where they take inspiration from, where they start from, how to paint such the beauty, or how their creative idea is.
Where I must start from, while I almost can’t catch up with what I saw. There are a very wide gap in my way about solving the problem to get the latest feeling.
Looking at the foreign candy packaging, I see that it’s still more beautiful than my painting, modern than my painting. So I was wondering where my position is in the art world. While the candy label is just a graphic art, therefore their paintings would have gone far than us in whatever level !
This is just a problem in the ten yeas of my standstill
Standing in front of the painting with much higher level than my thinking, I feel failure completely, so I stop working from 1994-2004, because I can’t catch up the beauty that I saw. It has a very big gap in the way of my feeling, setting up the matter and creating to catch up the modern art. This is a reason, I have to solve the problem slowly, very slowly, to fill in the gaps completely. I have to update my thinking, my feeling to get new rhythm and principle of modern art.
In this progress, I have searched back to Orient art principle, started from the first points in this principle, and didn’t solve the problem as the west art. Researching from pagoda, ancient wooden tools, ovenware, the Chinese books, I have found the first good directions slowly and from this results I knew the way that the west art are doing.. Since then, I used the orient principle for all of my creations.
It’s just the most different matter in my art works when looking in the present. You will feel that a certain oriental art principle is being existed in my space such as the balance, the restoration, the focus….Although it doesn’t show concretely, but it’s always an original point to develop the creation. This is also a profundity, delicateness of Orient.
But with the orient principle only, I can not end up my feeling, so I must combine with west art . It is a floweriness, freedom of west art on a delicate basic of Orient. It is combined between a harmony with nature in the orient art with the bold space of west art.
It is the orient raw with the luxury and fascination of west art.
The especial thing in my creation is that light are used as material, but not as a light source merely. Light is a component of artwork. It unites all of object together, combine with viewer, change the volume of light shining on artwork, and especially we can make manner, and change figure of light, and not only transparency like we saw. This is a reason, the light in my painting seems existed specifically, so we can touch, hold as a color.
Squares in my painting look like the broken pixels. It’s the structural elements of digital life today. All objects are made by pixels. Each square can contain a different content, it seems without relation together but they are always interface and unite to make a general space and topic.
There are a lot of information and knowledge overflowing to my
mind everyday through various media such as tivi, cell phone, internet,
newspaper and magazines….So why must I still paint one topic, one subject, one space in my
painting?
It’s the Orient space help me bringing viewer to participate into artwork, they and me create artwork together, but not standing and seeing negatively like in the past.
December 2, 2007
Nguyễn Sĩ Tuấn
Introduction
