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| Born in Hue in 1928, Ms. Truong came to the United States in 1986 and now lives in San Jose. Trained at Vietnam's Gia Dinh National College of Fine Arts, where she also became a professor, Ms. Truong is known for her fine portraiture and depictions of village life in vibrant colors. Her work has been exhibited in Vietnam, the United States, Australia, France, Japan, and elsewhere. In 1995, her paintings were included in "An Ocean Apart," a touring exhibition of contemporary Vietnamese and Vietnamese-American art curated by the Smithsonian Institute. |
 | Women and Salt Dunes: An atmosphere of mystery but also hope pervades this vaguely surreal coastal scene that shows women wading toward a fiery sun, almost as if they wish to levitate off the top of the painting. Ms. Truong spent many years observing women cultivating salt in evaporation pans along the Vietnamese seashore. |
| Secrets of Nature: This painting balances assertive color fields with delicate, calligraphic strokes to create a work combining naturalism and abstraction. The organic forms and stained-glass luminosity recall the western Art Nouveau movement, which, as many would acknowledge, drew many influences from East Asia. |  |
 | The River: The principal components of the eastern world are heaven (Thien), earth (Dia) and humans (Nhan). The artist brought out the spirit of these components through this classic composition. The foggy-colored river seems to fall down to earth from heaven. The almost threatening red glow of the setting sun emphasizes heaven's splendor and the mirror-like intercepting plane at the bottom of the painting suggests the ever enduring nature of earth. Caught in between are the vulnerable fishing village and its fishing boats. Humans will only preserve their delicate existence by respecting father heaven and mother earth. This is indeed the basis of yin and yang philosophy captured in a Vietnamese landscape, a theme often visited by the masters of the old school. |
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