Footnotes

Provenance
Arch Angel Art, Hong Kong
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner
Private Collection, Singapore

Literature
Pauline Foo, Tran Luu Hau 2014, Ben Thanh Art & Frame, Vietnam, p.151-152.

陳留厚
裸像系列 四
二〇〇二年作

簽名：hau 02
油彩畫布

來源
香港Arch Angel Art
現藏家得自上述畫廊
新加坡私人收藏

出版
Pauline Foo，《陳留厚2014》，Ben Thanh Art & Frame，越南，第151至152頁

"I have an extreme passion for primitive colours: red, black, green, white and yellow - the five elements of colour expression of Eastern culture, which are clearly visible in ancient Vietnamese folk painting, such as yellow metal in Buddha statues, sculptures and in Vietnam's antiquated temples." - Tran Luu Hau (Interview with Tran Luu Hau, 2014)

"Abstraction of Reality" was the term Tran Luu Hau used to describe his work. In this painting from his Nude Series, he employed criss-crossing brush strokes of primary colours to loosely define the figure, fusing both background and subject into a riotous kaleidoscope of hues. Unlike his contemporaries, he pushed his exploration of colour and form to much greater extremes.

He drew significant influence and inspiration from the post-impressionists and abstract expressionists of the Western art world, as seen from his colour palette and exuberant approach in both form and style. Stylistic links can also be drawn to the Fauvists who employed unexpected and fantastical use of colour to express emotion rather than accurately mimic nature.

Tran Luu Hau was one of the 22 students who trained under the master To Ngoc Van in the Khang Chien Resistance Class of the Vietnam University of Fine Arts. The college was moved to the hills of the Viet Bac Resistance Zone in 1950, where the students studied Drawing, Composition and philosophy, training under the revolutionary ideology to produce artworks as propaganda tools. In the late fifties, he received a scholarship to study at the Surikov Fine Arts Institute of Moscow, where he took up Art and Theatre design.

He left his roots in communist propaganda in his mature years and directed his artistic expression towards more poetic subjects such as still life and landscapes. However, he only started painting nudes in the 1990s and hence there are relatively few of them on the market.

Tran Luu Hau's works have been exhibited internationally and his paintings are preserved in prestigious collections, including at the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum, the Asian Museum of Russia, the Asian Art Museum in Poland, Chase Manhattan Bank, Accor Hotel Group, Tokyo Mitsubishi Bank Manhattan and the Singtel Art Collection.