Nguyen Thanh Binh
Nguyen Thanh Binh was born in 1954 in Hanoi. He went on to study at Hanoi College of Fine Art graduating in 1972 and later attend the Gia Dinh Na College of Fine Art in Ho Chi Minh City, where he specialised in oil painting. The artist portrays the women as dreamlike, abstracted figures. The empty spaces gives the appearance of being suspended in mid-air, rendering an angelic quality to his subjects.
Binh also does not just see females for their physical forms but is inspired by the sense of each woman, that elusive feminine mystery that can change like the wind. The sense of movement each woman has when she sits, stands, or lies down, whether dancing or playing sport, tells a story about who she is as an individual as well as other stories when she is with other people. Although Binh has been influenced by western art and its aesthetics, his art falls well within the philosophical and aesthetic sphere of Asia.
The artist conceals the faces of the women, creating a surrealist, amorphous effect, the women have the elusiveness of a personal memory, with the viewer imagining their own context and story behind the colours and shapes. Having faced myriad trails of mind and body, Thanh Binh seeks refuge in his paintings by striving to portray beauty, purity and innocence. Naturally, his muse is femininity, one that embodies an ideal purity.