Seminar eyes composition of fine art works on historical theme President of the Vietnam Fine Arts Association Tran Khanh Chuong speaking at the seminar   (Image: Hang Thu) Nhan Dan Online – Historical works of fine art have provided a practical way to educate the country’s younger generation in history, according to participants at a seminar on composing works on historical themes in Hanoi this morning. The event, which was held in response to the Central Council for Theory and Criticism of Literature and Arts’ request for reform and diversification in historical artwork, drew the participation of nearly 50 painters, sculptures and art critics. Eleven speeches by fine arts critics presented during the seminar focussed on reviewing the situation, achievements and existing problems of artwork composition on Vietnamese history over the past and figuring out characteristic features of the historical artwork, as well as suggesting solutions to promote the artwork to public. Delegates at the event agreed that since its establishment in the early 20th century, Vietnamese modern fine art has had a close affiliation to the national resistance wars and the country’s development, with artists having produced many significant artworks through the various media of painting, graphic art and sculpture to advertise the country’s tradition of defence and construction. The participants also touched upon the challenges of producing historical work, which is one of the most difficult form of art given it’s great potential to move the viewer. According to arts critic Le Quoc Bao, before start working on a historical piece, the artist has to well equip themselves with the fundamental knowledge from documents, historical research and other reference sources on the period and the subjects they want to feature, in a bid to ensure the truthfulness of his work. However, arts critic Nguyen Van Chien noticed that on historical work, it is likely that the artists would rather focus on traditional topics such as significant historic events or characters, the fighting spirit of Vietnamese people, remarkable victories during wartime, rather than exploit the country’s customs, festivals, traditional crafts and folk culture. Thus, the bias towards such subjects has narrowed the artists’ creativeness, he argued. Addressing the event, Tran Khanh Chuong, President of the Vietnam Fine Arts Association, the seminar’s organiser, pointed the way to advertise historical artwork among the public, such as boosting the co-ordination between the artists and museums to openly show the artwork to visitors, establishing a faculty specialising in historical arts composition at fine arts universities, as well as creating a proper mechanism to encourage artists to produce more artwork on the theme. He also stressed the need for publishing picture books comprising of outstanding historical artwork to deliver to schools’ libraries across the country to educate pupils about the homeland’s tradition. Hang Thu