Untitled (self-portrait)

Credit: Gift of Dato' Kho Hui Meng 2017, Collection of SMU

This artwork is part of 25x25 Campus Art Tour.

Listen to the audio description of the artwork here.

Transcript:

This small painting is an expressionistic self-portrait of Vietnamese artist Dak Suen Hua against an agitating red background. His head and shoulder reach the top and bottom edges of the canvas, filling up the small space with his looming enigmatic presence. His hair, goatee and eyebrows are brushed loosely in black. His cat-like eyes are painted simply, with elongated vertical ovals for both irises and pupils. They gaze out at the viewer in an unflinching stare, deep and searching. The wide round whites of the eyes are a stark contrast against the rough choppy brushstrokes of red, orange, yellow, green that colour the upper face—these are the colours of open wounds, and suggest a painful struggle playing through the artist's conscience. The lower face and neck are coloured a dull stone grey, lacking life. The portrait, though simple and rough, has an immediacy and directness in conveying the artist's state of mind.

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Dang Xuan Hoa (b. 1959, Vietnam) graduated from the Hanoi College of Fine Arts in 1983. He is a member of the ‘Gang of Five' who emerged in the 1990s with Doi Moi liberalisation.

His paintings are characterised by simplicity in form and substance. His representation of figures and objects are simple in colour and composition, almost rough, yet they have a sense of immediacy, directness and power.