HÀ NỘI — After decades working with lacquer, Nguyễn Thị Quế has presented her first-ever solo exhibition, modestly titled Nguyễn Thị Quế Lacquer Paintings in Hà Nội.

The exhibition features 30 works created over the past 25 years. Remaining faithful to two principal subjects, still life and portraits of women and children, the artist does not pursue avant-garde trends or contemporary theoretical discourse. 

Instead, her paintings convey a quiet, timeless beauty, evoking inner depth and a sense of serenity.

For the artist, lacquer painting does not allow haste. Its technically demanding and time-consuming process requires patience and discipline, reflecting her belief that lacquer is, at its core, the elevation of traditional Vietnamese lacquer craftsmanship to its most refined essence.

 

“I paint simple things around me, peonies in my garden, the gentle fragrance of lotus flowers in early summer and women from ethnic communities whom I have met and spoken with,” Quế said.

“I only paint when I feel a genuine affection for my subject.”

With these two themes, Quế does not seek to align her work with the ideology of the age, nor does she aim for innovation in modern or contemporary pictorial language.

Her works are intimate, accessible and quietly expressive. 

Art researcher Vũ Huy Thông said: “Portraits of mothers and children from mountainous regions, Lý and Trần dynasty ceramic vessels filled with lotus, banana blossoms, peonies or areca flowers – though transformed through many tonal variations, they possess an intrinsic vitality, existing in their own timeless beauty, within a suggestive and unfathomable space."

"It is a distilled beauty formed through 50 years of artistic practice by Quế,” Thông added. 

Quế graduated from the Việt Nam University of Fine Arts in 1977 with her thesis in lacquer painting. For more than half a century, she has worked steadily as an artist and fine arts educator.

Her name has been featured in several publications, including Vietnamese Female Painters and Sculptors of the 20th Century, Vietnamese Women Visual Artists and the catalogue of the 2016 Fuzhou International Lacquer Art Biennial.

According to fine arts critics, the exhibition is not a belated debut, but rather a necessary encounter between the public and artistic value that has been quietly accumulated over time.

The presence of such pure, distilled and technically profound lacquer works underscores the enduring vitality of traditional fine arts.

“There is nothing ostensibly new or academically groundbreaking to describe familiar objects, a handful of close-to-home flowers, with almost no interior or exterior settings to depend upon. The aesthetic vitality of Quế is rare, gentle yet profound, and generous yet noble," said fine arts critic Nguyễn Quân.

The exhibition runs until December 30 at Art Space, 42 Yết Kiêu Street, Hà Nội. — VNS