Hue is a place name, a scenic spot. Hue was the old capital and now has become one of the world's cultural heritage. First off, Hue is the important cradle of national poetry and art, where great poets and artists have been born and nourished. In the field of art, viewers certainly can't help forgetting the talented artist Nguyen Khoa Toan, the serious Ton That Dao, magnificent Pham Dang Tri with "cloisouné" enamel colour... Presently, the rank and file of Hue artists have been increasingly expanded. The painting exhibition which is to be organized by the Boi Tran's Art Gallery in Ho Chi Minh City this time with the participation of the artists from Hue will bring up a full picture of the art panorama in Hue, will introduce us to how the authors have silently worked at their own jobs, to how they have devoted to the pursuit of the path of art in a materially difficult situation.

We will admire the works of art by Truong Be and Vinh Phoi using modern stylistic methods, and it is by them the artists of the young generation have been trained in recent years. Respectively, we will witness the works by Do Ky Hang who gains skill in the technique of traditional lacquer, and by Duong Dinh Sang who always looks for and chooses worldwide new painting styles but still remains his own distinction; what he has created are the intensified and romantic poems. The paintings by Hong Trong My are full of romance and refined, relaxed touch. Nguyen Duy Linh is a painter with personal brush-work, spreading space by using pure white; Vu Van Thien designs his poetic drawings with zigzagging lines, with mystic paths in black and white; Le Quy Long embellishes the form of a broken world in dram; Phan Hai Bang expresses his works with signs and colours of the Highland. Ha Van Chuoc is with peaceful dram of paper-kite, moon and town, Nguyen Thanh Binh is with a melodic combination of national colours; Le Huu Nguyen is with dreamy grey and stillness. The only female artist in this exhibition is Cong Tang Ton Nu Tuyet Mai whose paintings possess a solid background, and bold brush strokes are rarely seen in others of her like.

Especially in this exhibition, we will notice two particular authors who are Trinh Cong Son and Truong Thin. All of us certainly have known them well, Trinh Cong Son, the music composer and Truong Thin the doctor whose medical studies have involved in West-Eastern medecine. Both of them are from Hue and attached their pride and love to their own hometown. Their paintings in this exhibition bear different ways: Trinh Cong Son uses warm and passionate colours, Truong Thin has romantic look on flowers and the people from Hue.

It can be briefly said that the painting exhibition that Boi Tran Art Gallery brings to us from Hue is a poetic picture of Hue, a poem composed by the talent in Hue.

NGUYEN TRUNG