VietNamNet Bridge - Nguyen Tu Nghiem, the last of the famous artist quartet of ‘Nghiem-Lien-Sang-Phai’ who had a great influence on the country’s art scene in the 20th century, passed away on June 15 at 94.

Painter Nguyen Tu Nghiem.

Nghiem was born in 1922 in Nam Trung commune, Nam Dan district, in the central province of Nghe An. He studied at the Indochina Fine Arts College from 1941 to 1946.

He made an impression on the arts community with his painting ‘Nguoi gac Van Mieu’ (Literature Temple Guard), which won the first prize at Salon Unique in 1944.

During the resistance war against French colonialism, he was a lecturer at the Fine Arts University on the Viet Bac Revolutionary Base and the Hanoi Industrial Fine Arts College from 1959 to 1960.

He was renowned as a creative painter who experimented with lacquer, pigments and ‘do’ traditional paper in painting Giong Saint, Kieu, the 12 Vietnamese zodiac signs, ancient dance and the countryside.

Nghiem won numerous prizes, including those at national arts exhibitions in 1944, 1948 and 1957; the international realistic art exhibition in Sofia, Bulgaria in 1985; and the Ho Chi Minh Prize in Literature and Arts in 1996.

He ranks among the four most influential painters in Vietnam in the 20th century, along with Bui Xuan Phai (1920-1988), Nguyen Sang (1923-1988), and Duong Bich Lien (1924-1988).

Below are outstanding artworks by Nghiem:

Spring at Hoan Kiem Lake, 1957 The calf, 1957   Ancient dance, 1970   The portrait, 1989   Saint Giong, 1990   Dragon, 2000   The 12 animal designations, 2003   Nghiem liked drawing the 12 animal designations. Thuy Kieu and Kim Trong (two characters in great poet Nguyen Du’s Tales of Kieu)

Thanh Van