Nguyen Dinh Dang

    I was born in Hanoi in 1958. My father was a high-school teacher of mathematics and my mother, a pediatrician.  I started to draw at around five years old.  There had been no artist so far in my family, but my father drew very well. He used to draw Hercules fighting with the lion Neme, and other classical themes on the blackboard. My father was my first teacher in art, mathematics, French and English.
    When the US started to bomb north Vietnam, my familyhad to evacuate Hanoi. Being very poor at that time, we did not even havewhite paper to write on.  I used a lot of paper for my drawings, whichluckily my father could get from school.
    My first painting in oil color was a portrait of an European lady, which I painted on a piece of rough cloth in 1970. It darkened quickly because I did not know how to prime the canvas. Also, there wasn’t enough white paint, so I replaced it with yellow. After finishing this painting Ishowed it to an artist, who laughed and said: "What a tuberculosis dame!" I also studied music, which still remains my main source of relaxation. I do my paintings listening to classical music and practice playing the piano everyday.
    Two events decisively influenced my artistic career at that time. The first event was when I visited my art teacher. I first met her when she was posing for her son to draw her portrait. I was impressed by how skillfully the young man caught her character without using a rubber eraser. Returning home, I set a similar goal for myself to draw portraits without erasing any lines, like him. After many sessions of practice I achieved this skill. I was around 15 years old when I realized that I could draw like Leonardo da Vinci. Once a friend lent me an album of Leonardo’s works. This was the first time I saw so many of Leonardo's drawings. For few days I copied all the drawings in this album with a pen. I was surprised when I saw that my copies were quite good and I achieved this rather easily. The second event that decided my future career was when I was walking through dark streets of the post-war Hanoi with my cello teacher, who told me: "In order to study art seriously, you had better go abroad." At that time being a creative painter was not a profession in Vietnam. Painting was considered as an illustration of political propaganda. I was a good student at school, especially in maths and physics, and got high scores at the university entrance exam. Therefore I was sent by the government to study physics at Moscow State University in1976.
    I visited the Pushkin Fine-Art and Tretyakov Museumsin Moscow, and the Hermitage and Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg, whichare excellent. All my winter and summer vacations were devoted to painting:still-lifes, portraits of friends and directly from nature. After one yearof painting in this way, I showed my work to a professor at the Moscow SurikovArt University. She told me that if I quit physics and joined her class shewould make me a great painter. Since I was sponsored to study physics, Idecided to become a painter by myself. I visited the Pushkin Fine-Arts Museumat weekends to make pencil copies of masterpieces. There I also discoveredthe impressionists and post-impressionists. I spent almost ten years paintingen plein-air. I also held several solo exhibitions in Moscow and Dubna.
    After completing my Ph.D. in physics in 1985, I returned to Vietnam to spend a rather long period in my home country, until 1987 when I went back to Moscow again  and got the Soviet Doctor of Physics and Mathematics Sciences degrees in 1990.  At this time I made friends with a number of fine artists in Hanoi. I also started to study the painting techniques of ancient masters by reading books on classical oil painting techniques inFrench and Russian, and copying works of old masters. I found the best wayto express myself, in which fantasy and hyperealistic drawing sound in unison.This came in part from my study of surrealist masters.
    In 1987 an international art show was held in Hanoi and I sent two of my paintings to the jury. Both contained nude models. Until that time arts had been severely censored in Vietnam and all nude images wereprohibited, but the policy of "doi moi" (renovation) in 1985 put this taboounder debate. One of my works, "Spring Inspiration," was selected only atthe second round thanks to an additional vote by the chairman of the jury, who had the right to cast an extra vote for the work he liked most. In this painting a nude model stands next to an artist in front of an easel. At the opening of this show, the Russian cultural attaché studied my painting and noticed a small book entitled "What to do?" with the portrait of Lenin on the cover, under the artist's desk. The desk was at the same level as theknees of the standing nude model. He complained to the organizers that thebook with Lenin's portrait was positioned too low, below the nude. I wasthen asked by my artist-colleagues to erase Lenin to avoid trouble for them.Should this event have happened a few years before, I would have been introuble with the authorities.  In the same year I became a member ofthe Fine-Arts Association of Vietnam (VFAA), the most prestigious society of professional painters and sculptors in Vietnam. In 1991 I held a solo showof 70 paintings at the new exhibition hall of VFAA in Hanoi.
    Since 1992 I have lived in different countries, where I was invited to take up research fellowship and contract positions. In 1994 I came to Japan and now realize my dilemma: "To be a physicist or to be an artist", I had made my choice. I am both. My work as a researcher takes all the daytime. I paint in the evenings and at the weekends. My wife and son are my models, art critics and first visitors.
    In 1997 I had a joint exhibition with a Japanese colleague at the Central Citizen Hall of Wako City, where I am living. In 2001 I gave lectures on my art at the University of Texas at Dallas, the Michigan State University, and the University of Notre-Dame. In the same year I held my firstsolo show in Japan. It took place at the Sun Azalea Exhibition Hall in Wakocity. For the first time in my life, I had a state-of-the-art hall to displaymy work. About 100 guests came to the opening. With this exhibition, I becamethe first artist from Vietnam to hold a solo show of paintings in Japan.The Tokyo debut of my paintings took place in the spring of 2002 at the ShiramizuGallery in Ginza.  At this show I met Mr. A. Osami, a photographer,who took pictures of all the paintings in this book.
    From 2002 I started to participate in large juried shows in Japan, including the 70th Independent Exhibition 2002, and 39th Individual Artists' Exhibition in 2003 at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. In the latterI was selected as one of 16 "Fine-Work Artists" from around 300 participants. In the same year I was invited by the Nichido Gallery in Ginza to join the 39th Showa Exhibition.
    Albert Einstein once said: "I don't think much aboutmy future. It comes soon enough." This has actually been my living styleso far. I was lucky because life has given me the chance to study both science and art and I did not miss this chance.
I just started a new painting. I don't know what title I will give it yet.