Silky: A game of colours by Pham Thanh Liem. — VNS Photo Viet Thanh.

Lovers of the art of silk painting have long known the artist Pham Thanh Liem for his famous work Co Tam, a painting he created in 1982, featuring the image of Cinderella with long flowing hair, which made his reputation at many an art exhibition.

His new idea is called The Mystery of the Silk, which is also the name of a personal exhibition of his silk paintings now on view in Ha Noi.

Pham Thanh Liem is already well known as one of the best silk painters, and he gives much thought to the art of silk painting, and the meaning and structure of his paintings.

His new exhibit surprises by showcasing a new series of paintings featuring a ravage of hot colours rendered impressionistically on the soft silk backgrounds.

Liem calls the exhibition of 50 paintings a "game of colours" in which the artist has mixed an outpouring of colours with brightness, shapes and ideas.

Within the same-sized silk frame, Liem has played his colours in different tones, showing changes in beauty, emotion, darkness and light, rhythms and styles.

"It has been said that artists all have the same ideas but differ in their abilities to express them in a particular medium. This is true for me," Liem said. "Painting on silk is more difficult because of the way the texture spreads the colours, " he added. "You must apply the colours firmly when painting."

Liem has pursued his art in works that belong to the graphic channel of modernism, in styles that variously evoke cubism, impressionism, symbolism, surrealism, and abstract impressionism, combined harmoniously with traditional graphic elements.

"Previously, I used to pursue surrealism in soft, lissom and glossy silk material. Later, however, I found it a limitation in my creativity," Liem said. "It is different now. Rough, dry and spongy silk would enable me to break the rules but still stick to the delicate and passionate tradition.".

Graphic factors dominant in his paintings include sharp vertical and horizontal lines on a fine and smooth silk. Colour shades are salient with both clear spread and blur.

"Liem’s paintings show the potentials of graphic art, a quite multidimensional manner of painting on a manually woven silk background," said art critic Le Quoc Bao.

"I have been making silk paintings for more than 30 years and hundreds of paintings. Whenever standing in front of a silk painting, I am moved as if I were painting for the first time because the originality of the silk background in each painting seems a mystery in itself, creating excitement and exciting changes in my technique, art and emotion," said Liem.

Liem has five silk paintings displayed at the Viet Nam Fine Arts Museum and Viet Nam Revolutionary Museum for values of art and tradition.

His exhibition, The Mystery of the Silk, runs until January 6 at 16 Ngo Quyen in Ha Noi. —VNS

Reprinted with permission from Vietnam News Agency