HCMC exhibition on glass paintings closes today

An exhibition featuring Vietnam’s southern glass paintings, which attracted numerous people, is closing today in Ho Chi Minh City.

Titled “Tranh Kiếng Miền Nam” (Southern Glass Paintings), the three-day event was organized by Vietnam Buddhist Research Center under the Vietnam Buddhist Research Institute and Phat Ngoc Xa Loi Pagoda. It took place 56 years after the latest glass painting exhibition was held in the city by Truong Cung Ving, also known as painter Van Hue, in 1957.

The exhibition at the pagoda at 89 Ba Huyen Thanh Quan Street in District 3 showcased 100 works of a wide variety consisting of paintings for ancestral worship, decoration, and paintings of gods, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. The paintings are from many collections of local collectors including Ly Luoc Tam, Nguyen Anh Kiet, Nguyen Dai Phuc, and Huynh Duy Thiet.

“Coming to this exhibition, I have a chance to see the art of glass painting with changes in topics and techniques through different periods of time. This is the first time I have witnessed it,” a spectator at the event expressed.

To make a glass painting, the artist paints on the inside surface of transparent glass for the viewers to see from outside the glass.

Glass paintings first appeared in Vietnam under the reign of King Minh Mang and Thieu Tri. Until the beginning of the 20th century, glass painting shops blossomed in Cho Lon area (in District 5 nowadays). After 1920, this kind of art started to flourish in southern localities such as Lai Thieu, My Tho, Cai Lay, Go Cong, An Giang and Tra Vinh.