“I create a figure on the canvas, then I start the fighting against him. I try my best to beat him, to uncover things that are hidden deep inside his body, inside his mind or at the bottom of his heart. This hurts him, but it gives me a feeling of safety and comfort.”
Tuong’s paintings very much reflect the inner battle, pain and conflict of an era scarred by war, suppression and later radical cultural and social changes as a result of the introduction of the Doi Moi policy.
Up until the late nineties, Tuong painted in an abstract manner. (He is recognised as one of the pioneers of the abstract movement in Vietnam.) He realised though, that abstraction was not adequate to completely express his emotions and ideas.
Tuong’s expressive figurative works possess an eerie quality, yet the titles of his works suggest the ordinary. Hot Summer Day for example, does not appear as its title suggests. Tuong has distorted reality for an emotional effect. And this is where the strength of his work lies. In a misleading way he is showing the viewer an intense emotion: the reality of his experience of life.
Do Hoang Tuong was born in Quang Nam in 1960. In 1979 he graduated from the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts College and 5 years later, in 1984 he graduated from the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Art University.
Tuong has been exhibiting his work overseas since his first show at Vietnam House in Paris in 1988. His works have been included in important exhibitions at the National Art Gallery in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Singapore National Art Museum, City Hall Gallery in Aahus (Denmark), Fujitya Vente Art Museum in Tokyo (Japan), the Metropolitan Museum of Manila (Philippines), Wallonie Brussels Centre (Belgium), Meridian International Centre in Washington DC (USA) and the Pusan Metropolitan Art Museum (Korea).
Voices of Vietnam is the second time Tuong has exhibited in Melbourne. In 2005 he participated in an exhibition at the Monash University Gallery. Do Hoang Tuong has also had many significant shows in Vietnam, where he has become one of the leading artists of his generation.
His work is represented in numerous private and public collections, most notably the Post Vi Dai Art Collection (Switzerland), Singapore National Art Museum, the Vietnam National Museum in Hanoi and
the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Museum.
