Trần Phúc Duyên sử dụng sơn điêu luyện, thanh thản như một họa sĩ, nhà thư pháp Trung Hoa sử dụng mực.
Trần Phúc Duyên's creative career can be roughly divided into 3 main phases: 1945 – 1954: traditional lacquer “unique”, from 1954 to around mid 1970s, Lacquer “Clair” and from the end of the 70s to 1993: Zen, ink-washed and abstract lacquer. Additionally, Trần Phúc Duyên was also adept at other media such as oil, silk and woodcut printing.
Duyên lived in Europe and had been exposed to Western culture and art for a long time , but homeland-related subjects continued to be his mainstay. All his landscape paintings, still life and human subject were typically Vietnamese, except for around 20 lacquer paintings depicting the sceneries in Switzerland, France and Northern Europe.
1945 – 1954: CLASSIC “LACQUER UNIQUE”
During this period, Trần Phúc Duyên created work in the traditional lacquer unique style, combining Eastern aesthetic with Western techniques typical of graduates from L’Ecole des Beaux Arts de L’Indochine, with its distinctive colours of black, vermilion, cánh gián or cockroach wing and gold. He had two signatures during this period. One during the early year with three Chinese characters of his name above his Latin name Duyen and the second one with only Duyen and the year of creation.
1954 TO THE END OF 1970s: “LACQUER CLAIR”
In France and Switzerland, Trần Phúc Duyên painted with “lacquer clair” styles and also created around 30 silk paintings. The main themes in his lacquer paintings are landscapes of the rural delta and the major attractions of the North of Vietnam and the urban elegant and romantic ladies in their Lemur Áo Dài. Trần Phúc Duyên’s lacquers on landscape continued to reflect the Oriental spirit but the colour palettes were brighter than the traditional. The thematic red and black were subdued by yellow or grey tones. The stark contrast that would have struck the audience dramatically gave way to a consistent, united and almost monotonemixture. He signed his works with TrDuyen and his stamp.
THE END OF 1970s TO 1993: INK WASH, ZEN AND ABSTRACT ARTS
During the last 20 years of his artistic career, Trần Phúc Duyên incorporated ink-wash and Zen art in his lacquer paintings. He also created many abstract works echoing the style of post-modern abstract pieces of the New York school. He also adopted a simpler signature with a stamp created from his initial TPD, below which is his first name in capital letter DUYEN or simply DUYEN.
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In his paintings created during this period, “Everything (in Duyên’s paintings) was removed to give way to silence, dreams and meditation. The artist has moved beyond expression, to reach the ultimate reunion of things.” By Jean-Claude Piguet at the opening ceremony of Trần Phúc Duyên’s exhibition in 1983
Trần Phúc Duyên never got married. He devoted his whole life to lacquer art and found happiness in his pursuit. He passionately sought perfection in creating beautiful and emotionally evocative artworks. Living in Europe – away from the home country of “Son ta”, Tran Phuc Duyen quietly contributed to the development and reinvention of Vietnamese lacquer art and gave this art form a place in the Western world.
