US and Vietnamese artists share common sentiments, values through exhibition

An exhibition by US veteran/visual artist David Thomas and Vietnamese painters opens in Hanoi on April 24, featuring artwork about the healing power of art, companionship in life, and a vision of the future.

The exhibition, David Thomas and Friends, featured his printmaking during his recent battle with Parkinson's disease, which was caused by exposure to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.

This complete series was presented in another group exhibition entitled Finding Parkinson between David Thomas and printmakers from Boston at the Danang Fine Art Museum in mid-April 2023.

On December 14, 2020, David Thomas saw his brain for the first time. His neurologist had ordered an MRI scan of his brain to monitor the progress of his Parkinson's disease. After the scan, he asked the technician for a CD containing images of slices of his brain.

"I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, but I was curious to see what I would find on the CD. After looking at several hundred slices, I was fascinated by the idea that everything about me and my entire life was somehow present in this incredibly complex organ," he said.

He then combined these MRI images with other symbols to create artworks that depict beautiful memories and hopes for the future.

The David Thomas and Friends exhibition also features artworks by 21 Vietnamese artists who have participated in exhibitions and art exchange programs organized and funded by the Indochina Art Partnership (IAP) over the past 30 years, from 1989 to 2019. Beyond professional interests, they have formed lifelong friendships and become cultural witnesses to three decades of dedication to healing a 20-year war that thankfully ended.

Painter Le Huy Tiep and veteran David Thomas at an event in Boston. Photo courtesy of David Thomas

After more than a year stationed in Pleiku, the land of sun and wind of Tay Nguyen (the Central Highlands), he returned from the war with memories, not of the dusty battlefields or the acrid smoke of gunfire, but the smiles of highland children as they crowded around the jeep the young soldier stopped in villages.

"Vietnam War" seems to become a common phrase, a constant thought, anchored in the consciousness of every American during those times, unlike David Thomas, who discovered the country's beauty and its people, the poetically beautiful souls, the desire for peace, and the resilience to overcome the difficulties of war.

Returning to Vietnam in 1987, where he had fought in his youth, David Thomas brought a humble, personal effort to reconnect and reconcile with the past. Little did he know that this journey would lead to a dozen trips back and forth between the United States and Vietnam over the next 30 years. This span of time has made Vietnam a part of his life, a second home, a place with many loved ones, friends, and emotional and spiritual connections, where his heart belongs.

One year later, in the Summer of 1988, Davis Thomas founded the non-profit organization Indochina Art Partnership (IAP). It quickly became a diplomatic, cultural, and artistic bridge between Vietnam and the US. Over the past 30 years, IAP has conducted dozens of artistic exchange programs, enabling hundreds of Vietnamese artists and intellectuals to work and visit the US and dozens of American artists and intellectuals to visit Vietnam.

The exhibition, David Thomas and Friends, runs through April 29 at the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum, 66 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street, Ba Dinh District, Hanoi.

Below are the artworks in the exhibition:

An artwork of David Thomas.

Artworks by Le Huy Tiep.

Artwork of Le Kinh Tai.

A sculpture by Le Lang Luong.

An installation art by Pham Huy Thong.

Minh Rong (Dragon Body) by Phan Cam Thuong.

An artwork by Nguyen The Son.

A portrait by Vu Bach Lien.