A male student’s painting about Hanoi is priced at 8000 USD

The painting “Hanoi dong” is inspired by the image of a modern “robot” man with a traditional pair of burdens, a bridge, carrying familiar relics of Hanoi such as the Temple of Literature and the Temple of One. Pillars, Uncle Ho’s Mausoleum… and coffee shops, pho…

According to the assessment, the painting has brought the most idyllic and familiar nuances of Hanoi into the hustle and bustle of modern life.

The painting was originally auctioned for $3,000 (VND 69.2 million). After several rounds of auctions, the painting was finally closed at $8000, 2.6 times more than the original valuation.

“During the auction, I had to give a presentation about the meaning of the painting. During the presentation, I was very surprised when someone bid $5000 and then kept increasing. In the end, the painting was pegged to 8,000 dollars,” recalls Tuan.

Sharing with VietNamNet, Dang Thai Tuan said that he has been passionate about painting since childhood and always tinkered with drawing cartoon characters. However, on the threshold of university, he decided to major in information technology.

“Even though I majored in a non-art related major, I have always nurtured a passion for painting. And I also received a lot of support from friends and family, especially from my father “- Tuan said.

Initially, the painting “Hanoi Rong” was brought by Tuan to the contest “Hanoi is …”. It took Tuan more than 3 weeks to complete the painting. At that time, Tuan spent nearly a week looking for and coming up with ideas, traveling around Hanoi and talking to people about the very places shown in the picture. After that, Tuan began to draw on the computer and took another 2 weeks to complete. Tuan often has to stay up at night to perfect because the student’s main job is still going to school.

Tuan said that he wants to keep and spread to young people and foreigners about Vietnam’s beautiful, simple and lovely image in a special way of his own.

“Talking about the beauty of Hanoi, Tuan thinks about the street vendors, but to make that image special, it also takes a lot of time to think. One question that popped up in my mind at that time was why not let the street vendors carry all the best features of Hanoi.” – Thai Tuan shared.

Thanks to that unique thinking, the painting won the first prize of the contest “Hanoi is…”.

“It’s really the result of the efforts that I had to put in during my journey,” Tuan said.

The painting was then auctioned, reaching the $8000 mark (184.7 million dong). The student said he had donated half of the money to support poor children affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the near future, Thai Tuan will complete his studies and plan to carry out some personal projects to introduce Vietnamese culture and people to international friends through paintings. Tuan also wants his paintings to be auctioned so he can help with projects for the community.

Truong Vinh