Hieu is possessed by an ardent yet shyly self-conscious passion which finds its expression in the impetuosity of colours combined with a refined subtleness of light that seems to be enlivened by a sudden outpouring of long-suppressed vitality. Featureless faces with white yawnings instead of mouths from which soar up silent songs. Cows, sometimes elongated but giving nonetheless an impression of squareness, of a quiet earthy colour of soil like the peasant’s life.

Hieu has been painting cows and buffaloes for around twelve years. He has continuously produced hundreds of gouaches and oil paintings almost indefatigably without getting bored. He appropriates “it”, which means not the cow itself – this familiar and useful beast – but the leitmotiv instead, the pre-concept of an aesthetic attention which focuses on his own proper world. “It” is merely the pivot that enables the painter to utilize this artistic language on the picture surface, ranging from figures, colours, tempos, rhythms, onto the composition. All the other motifs revolve around it – a country girl, a painter, a child, an old lady, a stone dog, flowers, fruit … in short, everything the artist wants to paint, and these items are closely associated with each other. All this has bought novelty and attractiveness to the commonly familiar things portrayed in Hieu’s pictures. (Text courtesy of Nguyen Quan)