Le Thong is a talented Hanoi-based painter whose art is devoted to one major theme: the beauty of women. While this is hardly an original subject, Le Thong's work is unique both in concept and execution. Each painting captures a different romantic ideal of Asian feminine perfection, like the translation of a poetic inspiration onto the canvas. Refined and graceful, the figures seem to exist in a world between dream and reality. This impression is heightened by a half-realistic, half-abstract style, in which the delicate faces and slender hands are drawn in minute detail, while the figures are half hidden behind a textured surface suggesting the soft, luxuriant folds of silk fabric. Fragile and seemingly out of reach, they have a beguiling air of mystery.
Le Thong was born in 1961 into an artistic family: his father, Le Thiep (1924-2000) was a well-known artist who taught at the Hanoi Fine Art University, where Le Thong also now is a lecturer. After completing five years' study at the University, Le Thong continued his education for another six years at the Kiev Academy in Russia, where he underwent strict and systematic training. Several of his works have now been collected by the Vietnam National Fine Arts Museum. In 1999, he won the Philip Morris Asean Art Award and in December 2000, he was awarded a silver medal (the highest recognition) by the National Fine Arts Exhibition.
Using a subtle, almost monochromatic palette, Le Thong conveys a sense of time in his paintings. Greens and yellows evoke the fresh air of a bright spring morning, while blues suggest the quiet silence of a winter's afternoon. The textured surface and fragments of ancient stone walls in the background also imply a sense of the past, as if Le Thong's ladies are for all time: past, present and future.
