Nguyen Tu Nghiem (1922 – 2016). A reward calf. 1957. Lacquer. 45,5×63 cm
Like a certain arrangement, after 9 years of resistance, artists returned to Hanoi and rushed to paint lacquer, forming a decade of lacquer (1955 – 1965) with famous names from Indochina Fine Art College: Tran Van Can, Tran Dinh Tho, Pham Van Don, Nguyen Duc Nung, Nguyen Sy Ngoc, Duong Bich Lien, Nguyen Sang, Nguyen Tu Nghiem…
Nguyen Tu Nghiem was deeply attached to revive a material that has surpassed the form of fine craft, reaching the historical, social and human themes of the new era. In the first years of peace, Nguyen Tu Nghiem immediately created two lacquer paintings in 1957 and 1958, which achieved great success: New Year’s Eve at Sword Lake and A reward calf, both in the collection of Vietnam Fine Art Museum.
Two paintings have a crowded composition. A reward calf has ten characters, men and women, old and young, coincidentally meet each other on a large background, the familiar path that they pass by everyday. They meet because of a calf that appeared with wet fur, a trembling posture and was not steady on his leg.
The message Nguyen Tu Nghiem wanted to share is the joy of farmers after the land reform, a revolution that brought about a fair life in the countryside with the biggest result being fields, the smallest being buffaloes and calves.
The calf in Nguyen Tu Nghiem’s painting is a reward calf, that is, he was born from a reward buffalo, creating double joy. Spread in the painting space, each character is an emotional state with this event. The characters co-exist in the layers showing affection, the closest group is the grandmother and children, the sister carrying the brother, the mother and children group cheering, clapping their hands happily. Farther away, the woman carrying a hoe from the field to her house stopped in surprise. Further, the two holding onto the tree were equally surprised and excited. A little girl standing behind a tree cowered in fear, perhaps she had never seen this animal before.
The painting A reward calf brought a social meaning in private ownership, Nguyen Tu Nghiem expressed the work in a state of affection reserved for the farmer, with a joy in real life.
A decorative motif that begins to appear from this painting is the dense foliage, the soft banana leaves embracing, creating a space that connects people and scenes. This motif is also seen in the series of lacquer paintings of ancient dances created in 1979, 1980, but stylized in the language of the semi-abstract school.
Creation on the topic of farmers in the context of Vietnamese society in the 1950s, Nguyen Tu Nghiem raised the issue of the plowman with a field, a broad social topic in the rural land reform revolution. In the work A reward calf, people are the central characters that will clarify the theme of the calf.
The image of a reward calf is a symbol of the farmers’ joy after the land reform. The full name of the work must be A reward calf to clearly show the theme, a hidden meaning that the artist wanted to convey with this work.
Realistic language and images occupy the entire heart of the lacquer painting with a modest size of 45.5×63 cm, but bloom the main issues that the artist wanted to present through the artistic image: A reward calf.
The topic of buffalo and calf was mentioned by many artists, the most typical is the watercolor sketch A reward buffalo by artist To Ngoc Van, created on March 22, 1954, depicting a peasant woman rolling up her pants to wade on the field with the big, strong, reward buffalo.
In Nguyen Tu Nghiem’s painting, the calf become a symbol for a social theme because the people present in the painting created the rural context after the land reform. The reward calf is really just an excuse for Nguyen Tu Nghiem to express his creative ideas.
The presence of a little new born animal brought with it an image of a new day in the countryside, a space, time, and moment honoring the simple little joy of home.
The characters in the painting interpret a peaceful and joyful atmosphere of a village afternoon where they meet after a session of plowing, reaping, and herding buffaloes. The points of view of the characters are all focused on the calf, through each person’s posture, it can be seen that this is the source of joys. Nguyen Tu Nghiem found a space to carry out the theme of countryside, agricultural production, buffaloes, calves, pigs, chickens, not in the fields, pastures, but a meeting place for villagers that they pass by everyday, where they encounter a simple joy.
Connecting human psychology with reality, expressing emotions through artistic images, the artist found the source of joy of simple farmers, starting from the closest, most loving image in daily life. The countryside is a topic mentioned by many artists, but most of it is realistic with familiar images such as going to the fields, doing irrigation, taking care of buffaloes and cows… The image of a calf born from a reward buffalo leading joy in the village, leading a new agricultural production method, leading to a happy and prosperous future of farmers who had been attached to the fields for a lifetime. It is the talent, hidden thoughts and feelings of Nguyen Tu Nghiem.
With the symbolic language method for cloud and moon, Nguyen Tu Nghiem formed a principle in his creation so that the hidden meanings gradually became clear, from the joy of the birth of the calf to the joyful village atmosphere after a busy day. People who meet on a familiar path, young and old, boys and girls, clothes from the brown skirt to the black pants and blouses of the peasant sister, the baby girl in the flower dress… a happy gathering scene begins from a little newborn animal.
The hidden message “seeing the sky through the eye of a needle”, A reward calf is truly an elaborate work in terms of creative ideas, naming and content depicting characters to create a naturally gathered, joyful atmosphere. A peaceful space has come after the painful past. From here, the plowman has a field, starts a new life, a hope in the fields of cooperation, the sowing season, the busy harvest day will be suggestions for the next topics.
Looking back at the work A reward calf, in front of our eyes is an idyllic life scene of a peasant family in the Northern Midlands. Nguyen Tu Nghiem’s hands took care of every detail, from the calf to the jackfruit tree, the pile of straw, the veins of the leaves on the banana bush during flowering, the mother’s bare feet and the flower shirt the baby girl’s wearing. The joy that quietly grew after the victory of the land reform was described by the artist with deep and vivid psychology in bold strokes. The faces of the characters are so close that there seems to be a light that brought Nguyen Tu Nghiem to the source of the expression as his eyes had seen.
The seemingly simple human faces and shapes in A reward calf is the simplicity of a skillful hand, when the artist had captured the spirit of things then could express them comfortably. It seems that everything is already metaphorical in Nguyen Tu Nghiem’s mind and he only had to faithfully paint it on the board.
Photographer Le Vuong
Article by researcher Nguyen Hai Yen
Copyrights belong to Viet Art View
