Central South And North Spring Garden
Author: Nguyễn Gia Trí (1908-1993)
Medium: Lacquer on wood
Dimensions: 540 x 200 cm
Date: 1989
Completed during 20 years, "Central South and North Spring garden" is the most quintessential work of artist Nguyễn Gia Trí because all the achievements in the research, exploration and accumulation of lacquered painting are presented here.
Held at the Ho Chi Minh City Museum of Fine Arts, it is one of the representative paintings of Vietnamese modern art recognized as a National Treasure. Being an original and unique artifact, the work has a length of creating from 1969 to 1989.
The beauty of Vietnamese women is inherently familiar to the painting as a whole, but this picture is more outstanding and notable with the presence of women from all three regions of Vietnam: the North, Central and South.
The master of lacquer Nguyễn Gia Trí has an ingenious combination of golden material and eggshell to create a work that is visually impressive with the dominant colors of red, black, yellow and white.
Along the left and right borders of the picture are two Chinese verses from the culturalist Đào Duy Từ, roughly translated as:
“The fragrance of flowers spreads in the direction of the wind
Bright moon with its shadow reflect on the clear water surface”