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| A visitor inspects a painting by Robert Mihagui at the Phuong Mai Gallery in HCMC’s District 1 - Photo: My Tran |
The exhibition features 30 oil abstracts of the landscapes in France and North Vietnam. Everybody sees something different in Mihagui’s work but the power of the sky, land and the water is in all of his paintings.
“Although I paint in an abstract style that many Vietnamese are
unfamiliar with, the viewer can imagine magnificent mountains, gentle rivers, waterfalls, old houses and trees,” Mihagui said. He added that he wants to encourage his audience to view his work with the soul and not the eyes.
He chooses to exhibit in Vietnam instead of developed Asian countries like Hong Kong or Singapore because of a spiritual connection with this country.
“I always see images of where I was born in my mind’s eye, even in my dreams, which inspires me to paint in an amorphous style. I record the memories of my childhood using brushes and colors. I think, wherever you go, you always want to go back to where you come from.”
Born in 1945 in Vinh Phuc Province, Robert left Vietnam at 13 with his French father and studied fine arts from 1961-1984 in Surgeres in France. Mahagui was interested in pictorial techniques and pigments and was greatly influenced by the works of Zaou Wou Ki, a Chinese painter. At the age of 25, he decided to concentrate his energies on a personal style which is somewhere between abstraction and post-impressionism.
The exhibition runs till Dec. 18.
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